Nina Martyris is a literature-focused freelancer. Her writing has appeared in NewYorker.com, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, NPR and elsewhere.
Sixteen years ago, life seemed perfect for drama teacher Heather Harpham when she fell in love with Brian Morton, an award-winning novelist equipped with a "sly, sly humor." Sure, they were a study in opposites he was a disciplined, "diffident, sexy, Jewish intellectual," she a California free spirit; he ate broccoli with brown rice and garlic sauce for dinner every night, she strayed toward salty snacks and ice cream; her apartment had big, colorful posters, his had black-and-white postcards. But they were young, in love, and living in New York, and these differences only proved to be thrillingly attractive.
One difference, though, was insuperable: She wanted kids, he didn't. Neither made any secret of where they stood on the issue.
When Harpham learned she was pregnant, they broke up, and she went back to her mother's studio in California to have the baby. Lonely and furious, she was nevertheless determined to bring up her child "one-handed." Hours after the birth of her daughter, however, came a devastating diagnosis: The baby's bone marrow couldn't make red blood cells. She would require an immediate blood transfusion and frequent ones thereafter four in the first three months as it turned out to stay alive.
In her new memoir, Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After, Harpham relives the heartbreak, hope, and terror she experienced as she watched her infant daughter cross the abyss of a life-threatening disease. Into this tension-torqued story of sickness and health, she works in the fraught tale of her own evolving relationship with Morton, loading the memoir with an added intensity.
Acutely aware that her little girl, Gracie, is a victim of bad blood in more ways than one bad blood between her parents and her own malfunctioning red blood cells Harpham is a tight coil of fear and anger. Her mother, stepbrothers, and friends in California form a protective cordon around her and the baby, but their loyalty only serves to throw Morton's absence into high relief. Four months after Gracie's birth, Morton, who has called every night and been worried sick long-distance, asks if he can see his daughter. He arrives, and quite naturally, finds her irresistible.
Harpham is no longer "one-handed," but her anger doesn't dissolve overnight it's just that saving Gracie becomes the focus of her parents' world. The transfusions stabilize her, but the odds of her living past 30 are not high. There is one solution: A stem-cell transplant from a donor who is a close match. A sibling would be the answer. It would mean having another child. But what are the chances of a sibling being a perfect match? Even if there's a match, what are the chances of the transplant being successful? Failure would be fatal. Should they go ahead? It's an agonizing decision only Gracie's parents can make.
In sharp and vivid prose, Harpham tunnels through the harrowing months ahead filled with hospitals, needles, and ICUs. While the book could have benefitted from some pruning, what keeps the reader reading is the writing. Apart from the long, twee title, Harpham's language is crisp, tersely evocative (the baby freshly conceived inside her is a "grain of rice with a heartbeat"), and most bracingly for a book whose currency is pain, funny. Harpham admires Morton's sly humor, but she, too, has a gift for comedy that glints through at dour moments. It's hard not to smile, albeit with a catch in your throat, when she says her unsmiling newborn, "barely past blob status," looks "alarmingly like Alfred Hitchcock" and emits high-pitched squeaks like "a small wind instrument" and who, after a few hours out of her mother's womb, begins "to smell less like apples and more like an element, tin or iron."
Iron, of course, is the elixir the baby needs to survive, and Harpham's humor has an aching edge to it. It provides the gritty foil to lighter moments such as the hospital scene when Gracie first sets eyes on Gabriel, whose stem cells, if they turn out to match hers, could save her life. She doesn't know any of this, as she's not even two. Asked what she thinks of her brother, she peers into his face, strokes his hand, and announces: "Soft boy."
"My mom cried," writes Harpham. "Brian cried. I cried. Gabriel slept. Gracie looked at us all with baffled amusement what were we so worked up about?"
A heartfelt exploration of mortality and life, this memoir also explores the complex pulls and pushes of human relationships, and the deep debt we owe to family, friends, and modern medicine. At heart, it is a sobering mediation on the lasting impermanence of its titular emotion, happiness.
Go here to read the rest:
'Happiness' Explores The Complex Push And Pull Of Human Relationships - Alabama Public Radio
- Woman Who Conceived Twins in Rape Rejects Abortion, Shares How Her 21-Year-Old Twins Saved Her Life - The Epoch Times - October 13th, 2022
- Kid Captain Eli Belser takes the field with Hawkeyes, celebrating two years cancer free - UI The Daily Iowan - September 8th, 2022
- How space technology like the James Webb telescope is improving healthcare on Earth - The National - July 27th, 2022
- How COVID-19, Long COVID, and COVID Vaccines Differ Between Males and Females - CreakyJoints - July 27th, 2022
- Researchers find fabrication of artificial heart for transplant - ThePrint - July 19th, 2022
- Paolo Macchiarini - Wikipedia - July 3rd, 2022
- President Freeman Hrabowski prepares for retirement after turning UMBC into the top producer of Black M.D., Ph.D. graduates - Afro American - July 3rd, 2022
- Women find community in STEM fields at UA - The University of Alabama Crimson White - April 19th, 2022
- Poker Run event planned to benefit twins with rare syndrome - The Andalusia Star-News - Andalusia Star-News - April 6th, 2022
- Dr Borehams Crucible: Mesoblast within months of 3 major trial results, key regulatory decision - Stockhead - July 6th, 2020
- Alabama Stem Cells | Stem Cell TV - September 12th, 2019
- Only Cosmetic Stem Cell Therapy in Alabama - msbmd.com - April 20th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy in Houston, TX | National Stem Cell Centers - March 23rd, 2019
- Central Alabama Pain Management Center Established 1993 - March 6th, 2019
- Stem Cell Mobile Alabama 36607 - January 4th, 2019
- Stem Cell Birmingham Alabama 35282 - August 30th, 2018
- USA College of Medicine - University of South Alabama ... - July 24th, 2018
- Researchers find new glioblastoma inhibitor - Patient Daily - August 24th, 2017
- A Chip That Reprograms Cells Helps Healing, At Least In Mice - Alabama Public Radio - August 12th, 2017
- Hampton Creek to enter clean meat market in 2018: 'We are building a multi-species, multi-product platform' - FoodNavigator-USA.com - June 30th, 2017
- Brain Tumors: Still Devastating, but Treatment Has Come a Long Way - Newswise (press release) - June 20th, 2017
- Walk for "terrible, awful" disease - Timmins Press - June 18th, 2017
- Rare disease hits 2 of family's 4 children - The Ledger - June 18th, 2017
- Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (HRC) Reaches $76.89 52-Week High, Biotime (NYSEMKT:BTX) Shorts Increased By 4.64% - UtahHerald.com - June 13th, 2017
- STEM College Students Who Learn by Example May Lack Key Attribute - GoodCall News (blog) - June 13th, 2017
- Wolf Evolution and Settled Science - PLoS Blogs (blog) - June 8th, 2017
- 3D-Printed Patch Mends Hearts - Photonics.com - June 6th, 2017
- When states have strong guns laws, they also have fewer fatal police shootings - Los Angeles Times - May 19th, 2017
- Top graduating senior in 'crazy race to the finish line' | Berkeley News - UC Berkeley - May 9th, 2017
- 3D-printed patch could lead to new treatments for patients after a heart attack - Biotechin.Asia - May 5th, 2017
- Meet Curry Cates: 2017 Big Man on Campus - The Auburn Plainsman - April 28th, 2017
- Andrews Institute Looks Ahead - Inweekly - April 27th, 2017
- UMN research team fixes broken hearts with 3D-printed tissue patch - Minnesota Daily - April 27th, 2017
- Bengals set to hold onto McCarron for at least 1 more year | Sports ... - Newsexaminer - April 27th, 2017
- Andrews Institute Celebrates Ten Years, Looks to Next Ten - WUWF - April 25th, 2017
- Scientists want to help you recover heart attack with a 3d printed patch - Industry Leaders Magazine - April 25th, 2017
- Bengals set to hold onto McCarron for at least 1 more year - WTOP - April 25th, 2017
- Mending broken hearts - The Sydney Morning Herald - April 22nd, 2017
- 3D-printed Patch Can Help Mend a 'Broken' Heart | Technology ... - Technology Networks - April 22nd, 2017
- UAB performs Alabama's first transplant where cadaver liver is 'kept ... - Medical Xpress - April 22nd, 2017
- Heart-healing patch has got the beat - New Atlas - April 20th, 2017
- 3D-printed Patch Can Help Mend a 'Broken' Heart - Technology Networks - April 19th, 2017
- 3D-Printed Patch Can Help Mend a 'Broken' Heart | Lab Manager - Lab Manager | News (press release) (blog) - April 18th, 2017
- 3D-printed patch can help mend a broken heart - UMN News - April 14th, 2017
- Bart Starr returns to Tijuana for stem cells - USA Today - April 10th, 2017
- Pioneering Investigators in Experimental Heart Stem Cell and ... - Newswise (press release) - April 9th, 2017
- The mystique of the invisible: Understanding mental illness - Glens Falls Post-Star - March 27th, 2017
- The Equities Research Analysts' Updated EPS Estimates for March, 20th (AIMT, AMID, AUPH, AVD, BDREF, BPTH ... - Petro Global News 24 - March 23rd, 2017
- Hettinger, ND gets state-of-art new clinic and vets - AG Week - March 21st, 2017
- Harvard Scientists Call For Better Rules To Guide Research On 'Embryoids' - Alabama Public Radio - March 21st, 2017
- State-of-art new clinic - and vets - The Dickinson Press - March 19th, 2017
- 3 Women Blinded By Unproven Stem Cell Treatments - Alabama Public Radio - March 16th, 2017
- Hot Biotech Stocks Recap: Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR), Biostage, Inc. (NASDAQ:BSTG) - The Voice Registrar - March 7th, 2017
- Trump's coal council to drill down on advanced technology - Washington Examiner - March 6th, 2017
- Embryo Experiments Reveal Earliest Human Development, But Stir Ethical Debate - Alabama Public Radio - March 3rd, 2017
- Houston Solar Car featured in IMAX film, Smithsonian - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal - February 24th, 2017
- News Scan for Feb 20, 2017 - CIDRAP - February 21st, 2017
- On Second Attempt, SpaceX Launches Rocket At NASA's Historic Pad - Alabama Public Radio - February 20th, 2017
- A Liftoff Deferred: SpaceX Mission From NASA's Historic Launch Pad Delayed - Alabama Public Radio - February 19th, 2017
- ECO VIEWS: Advertising is not just for humans - Tuscaloosa News - February 13th, 2017
- ECOViEWS: Advertising is not just for humans - Aiken Standard - February 11th, 2017
- Unsung: Jewel Plummer Cobb - Undark Magazine - February 8th, 2017
- Bart Starr prepares to watch Super Bowl from home as health keeps improving - USA TODAY - February 7th, 2017
- Romero '87 Sees ACLU Donations Soar, Munson *79 to Lead RIT, and More - Princeton Alumni Weekly - February 7th, 2017
- Meet the Team - The University of Alabama at Birmingham - January 26th, 2017
- Tallasee Dog Undergoes Stem Cell Procedure - Alabama News - December 30th, 2016
- Dermal fibroblast - Wikipedia - November 27th, 2016
- Stem Cell Hair Growth Huntsville | Steve Latham Hair ... - September 12th, 2016
- Adult Stem Cell Success - Children of God for Life - April 18th, 2015
- Can cancer vaccines prolong survival? - April 7th, 2015
- Human embryonic stem cells clinical trials - Wikipedia ... - February 19th, 2015
- Christian singer Carman shares testimony of cancer victory - February 2nd, 2015
- Urban Dictionary: stem cell - January 21st, 2015
- Huntsville blood bank to preserve umbilical cord tissues - November 25th, 2014
- CGS : 60 Minutes Exposes Stem Cell Scams Again - November 22nd, 2014
- What Are Stem Cells? (with pictures) - wiseGEEK - November 16th, 2014
- alabama StemCells Therapy StemCells Therapy - October 24th, 2014
- Life Issues Institute - Successes of Adult Stem Cell ... - October 16th, 2014
- A heartbeat away? Hybrid 'patch' could replace transplants - October 1st, 2014
- Huntsville AL Resources - Stem Cells: Get Facts on Uses ... - September 29th, 2014