Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer. It is pernicious and aggressive, not curable or even treatable. She spent most of her last 30 months in hospitals, getting or recovering from chemotherapy. There were bright times, a good Christmas, her husband Gene Wilder, a coterie of friends, group support meetings at a Wellness Center for cancer patients, and an experiment with macrobiotic foods that allowed her to feel great for a couple of months. Her narrative is open, honest, frank, and (as much as possible) humorous.
Most interesting to me was the constancy of cancer and its treatments. In our local support group for multiple myeloma, we all tend to speak of neuropathy as if it were new, special to our cases, and identified with Revlamid, Velcade, or Darzalex. And we all complain about the pain and the effects and side-effects of the painkillers that sometimes do not work at all. And it is personal. However, Gilda Radner’s story is 35 years old. She went through all of those symptoms and all of the others. I have a lot more perspective and context now.
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| Although a new, revised 20th anniversary edition was released in 2009, I read the first edition. "...featuring a newly updated resource guide for people living with cancer and a tribute by Radner’s former colleagues at Saturday Night Live." Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 19, 2009) Length: 304 pages ISBN13: 9781439148860 |
“Chapter 11. What’s Funny About It” Easy answer: not much. Her caregivers in the hospital did go along with her sense of humor, her need to find humor. With Gene Wilder’s help, they videotaped one session and while she was unconscious, they hung cards of monologue over her head. Nothing in the chapter or the book is laugh-out-loud funny. Even so, Radner’s tragicomic sense of life and her feeling for irony were easy to understand and accept. I found reflection in her story.
PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS
The Little Black Bag: Medical Care as a Faustian Bargain
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