Diamonds in the Water: You Shall Remain Standing

By Daniel McCrimons MD

Looking back at the life of Dr. Windsor Langford Waterbury III, the reader will be directed to Dr. Waterbury’s unexpected revelation of a secret about his highly respected grandfather, which precipitates a review of the earlier part of his own life. Although socially privileged with an illuminating career in medicine unfolding, Dr. Waterbury faced sorrowful hurdles with a shattering, deliberate manipulation to sever ties with his beloved fiancée.

He now must make an important career decision; but at this time, he is still haunted by his emotional and psychological setback. Then he experiences yet another challenge: a prolonged life-threatening disease that takes him on an unexpected path filled with great moments of joy and several lingering hardships. Can Dr. Waterbury fall back on the teachings and wisdom from his predecessors to deal with this strife? Will he remain standing, and will he resolve to cope amid these entangled circumstances?


Diamonds in the Water - Book II is a testimony we can use to examine and appreciate the vital principles and tools that can be utilized by those of us who want to move beyond the apparent dilemmas we are given. It is also for those of us who want to remember the values we have nurtured during the abysmal and wearisome times, which could serve us well throughout our lives. There are choices that need to be considered constantly, but a time-tested wise choice will forever be a guiding star in the darkest, most ominous sky.

Meanwhile, hold on as Dr. Waterbury takes you on his unforgettable journey during the maturing years of his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Aug 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781982231668

Daniel McCrimons MD

Daniel McCrimons M.D., a Harvard College and Columbia University trained physician, is a practicing pediatrician who has had a dedicated interest in blending his 38 years of clinical experience and discussions on family values to integrate science, history, philosophy, and spirituality and create a life story worthy of investigation, assessment, and an analysis of plan for therapeutic self-improvement.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments for Book 2

Disclaimer

Introduction

Author’s Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Endnotes

About the Author

Preface

A Candid Insight on the Intention for

Writing Diamonds in the Water

The writer James Baldwin penned an essay in the January 14, 1962 New York Times Book Review titled As Much Truth as One Can Bear. I authored my novel before reading his powerful insights, but I must state that Baldwin’s message is clearly in accord with the reason why I wrote it. The writer’s job is to speak out about the world as it is.¹

Diamonds in the Water intends to address that peculiar and pervasive complacency that exists while living in a spiritually and culturally divided society under the pretext of a United States of America, which the population has accepted throughout its history to be the American way. In fact, that issue has never been investigated but does need to surface so we can stare at it and study it for a while. We need a microscopic examination, that deeply searching introspective review that brings a polished mirror to the forefront of our consciousness. From this vantage point, we take the gifted opportunity to face the reality of our being, both physical and spiritual, blended to reveal a focused awareness of our true greatness as individuals and a collective society.

But we must ask the naked questions. How much truth can one bear? What does it take to push someone to face it? Are we capable of making changes within ourselves to take that preliminary step, embrace the truth, and consciously and suddenly cry out, Is there more for me to bear?

The solutions to these questions are answerable but need patience and fortitude before a clear-cut conclusion can be visualized. The clever intellectual might assume this goal is an impossibility because it has been addressed through a mental churning process up until now. But that is how we have been trained to undertake any problem: back-and-forth debate, compromise, further investigation, or more research and time needed. It is a record that has been played so many times and over so many repeated years; it’s embarrassing to admit it has been broken and out of tune since the beginning. An error cannot be healed if a truth isn’t willing to be faced.

To address the inertia of the complacency issue, we must be willing to consider using an open thought process. In addition to our daily routine of respiration, circulation, consumption of nourishment, elimination, execution of desired tasks, and sleep, we should dedicate indispensable time to remain familiar with our consciousnesses and consciences. On most days, our consciousnesses and consciences are assumed to be functioning, but at any given moment, in a crisis or emotional challenge, they both seem to rise to meet the expectation to move us forward. What happens, though, during any given unremarkable period of time? The conscious state becomes dull and drifts into a tranquilizing reverie, detaching one’s thoughts away from his or her conscience. How can that happen anytime during our wakeful hours?

Our minds randomly transition between a Jekyll and Hyde phenomenon. While conscious of our consciences, we tend to remain more human, compassionate, aligned, and secure; and when altered by self-indulgence, resentment, fear, jealousy, and indoctrinated by a moral despondency, we are likened to a machine, void of consciousness and conscience, a soulless thought process. But the machine is a man-created, egocentric state of mind. Our consciences are a natural gift embedded in our humanity. The machine contains misleading errors that evolve into perpetual errors, which are convenient and self-serving to its inventor. Our conscience is based on time-tested and time-proven principles that are ever faithful, ever vigilant, and as eternal as our Creator Himself.

The appropriate question to raise would be, why would anyone feel any advantage to play the role of an Edward Hyde? That is not a question that has a straightforward answer, but we are given choices to make, and they aren’t always to our liking. Dr. Joseph Krimsky, in his essay The Wonder of Man, stated that it is important to consider the way we fashion our destinies—in the road we take toward our goal … Man can take the high road, or he can take the low road … We are as free as our will and our imagination. True enough, the materials are there, and they are often not of our making or choosing; but what we do with them, how we mix them, how we give them value—that is our choice and our freedom.²

It is this wrestling within us that generates a back-and-forth urge between a state of harmony and balance or chaos and destruction. This self-generating battle has given the complacency issue constant fuel to grow and distort reason and common sense. Ego is the architect building each battle, but we can’t rely on ego to support us on our journey through life. Ego creates a detour down a pathway that has no worthwhile destination in the long run. We need to return to our conscious state of conscience and take the opportunity to directly stare at the mirror of truth and face it. But it cannot be approached in a conventional way. The revelation of this mirror requires a stillness within us, a deeper, penetrating thought, a partnership between ourselves, each other, and our Creator. It is the open thought process I mentioned previously. It may seem insurmountable—too much interference, evil, distraction, and fear. But the sun remains shining behind the most violent storms, and we cannot give up on truth.

Dr. Krimsky summarizes how to accomplish our task at hand. Spirit counsels gentleness, humility, repentance and forgiveness to counteract the feelings of guilt, injury and remorse that underlie our [discontent]. Become aware and bow your head in reverence and humility. Go to … your neighbor with an outstretched open hand and with a friendly word that turns away wrath. Is brotherhood and good will among men an idle dream? Nay, hate is like an unlocked door of the dungeon cell in which the prisoner thinks himself incarcerated forever. We are the prisoner of our errors and our delusions.³

The ego is a powerful antagonist. It is a clever manipulator. It is a skilled enticer, and it makes itself a proud possessor of an apparent winning hand. But its foundation is based on shifting sands, darkness, and no consistent satisfaction. We need a pathway lit to lift us away from our errors and delusions. We need hope, serene thoughts, and a contented heart. Dr. Krimsky adds, War and peace are matters of the heart more than of economics and politics.⁴

How fitting to recall when the US Congress ratified the statehood of Hawaii on March 12, 1959. There was much celebration among the Hawaiian people the following morning. Firecrackers and other noises erupted during the territorial Senate meetings while they were conducting prayers before the session began. After the session was over, a huge gathering of the political leaders and community members came for a Thanksgiving service at the old stone Kawaiahao Church. The Reverend Abraham Akaka gave a memorable sermon about the power of the Aloha Spirit and its significance in galvanizing the true meaning of brotherhood and our ties to God. The words of Dr. Akaka offered viable and sustainable answers to each of the previously asked questions.

Aloha is the power of God seeking to unite what is separated in the world, the power that unites heart with heart, soul with soul, life with life … race with race, nation with nation. It is the power that can reunite where quarrel has brought separation, it is the power that reunites man with himself when he has become separated from the image of God within. Through Aloha, we can lift all the people to a higher state of civilization … Truly all mankind belongs together. Let Aloha, the spirit of God, work in you and in me, and in the world uniting what is separated, bringing new light and life to all who sit in the darkness of fear and the shadow of death, guiding the feet of mankind into the way of peace.⁵

How much truth can one bear? What does it take to face it? Are we capable of making changes within ourselves to embrace the truth? The simple answer to each question is to adopt the understanding of the Aloha Spirit and the sage comments of Dr. Krimsky, for they are one and the same. Live them, practice them daily, incorporate them as a routine experience, and we will align our conscious thought with our consciences and face life, with all the vicissitudes and immutable truths combined, with grace, dignity, and gratitude.

Acknowledgments for Book 2

It is ironic that I had to wait nearly two years to get Diamonds in the Water, book 2, published, even though it was completed at the time I published book 1. Some people might question why it took so long, but the wait was necessary for all practical purposes.

I would like to acknowledge all my dear friends who helped me put together the beautiful stories that contributed to the ongoing development of the Waterbury family. To the late Drs. Sondra Wilson and Michael Brown-Beasley, who gave suggestions to the development of the entire book’s story line, character portrayal, and history of many of the events, I am indebted to your support of my dream. To Dr. and Mrs. Vincent Cordice, for the personal information about Dr. Louis Wright, Harlem Hospital, and Harlem life in the 1930s. To Pinchas Cohen, for his review of the chapter with Dr. Goldenweiser and his help in creating the character of Schlomo Jacobson. To Fred Saca, Mahmoud Sharif, and Hazem Sharif, along with Pinchas, who created the story of the three friends in Palestine in 1948. To Dorothy Sachiko Koga, for all her remembrance of her internment during World War II and the creation of Yukio Miyashita and his family. To Bill Etgen, my friend who told me about the story of Desmond Doss. To Jack Metzen and Joe Garrett, whose life stories were the basis for the Jack and Joe chapter in the 1950s. To the late Carl Holmes, whose personal recollection of the Howard University 1953 commencement was such a valuable addition. To Jim Kobasic, my dear friend, who told me the true story of Jim Tsukamoto, the Japanese pitcher. To my longtime friend and supporter for the publication of this book, Curt Greer, my deepest appreciation.

And to my inner circle of confidantes who rose once again to perform a miracle, giving me their time to build the story line, character development, the editing, the book cover design, the careful and precise formatting of the entire project, and the opportunity to create the book while practicing in my clinic and the hospitals—Dr. Jerome Wright, Jack Metzen, Fred and Lori Cooper, and Marcia Sund.

I would like to add my family, who are very pleased with the outcome of this work. We have recently been blessed with a new daughter, who married my oldest son. How much joy and love she brings to us all.

And finally, to my friends at Balboa Press—publishing associate Mary Oxley and the editorial staff—who put this book into a marvelous presentation so I could sprinkle my thoughts and words on you, the reader.

Disclaimer

All characters appearing in this work, whether they truly lived or were originally fictitious, are mentioned in a historical context only and not with the intention of character defamation or praise. Rather, this is a perspective taken by the analysis of the fictitious narrator.

Any resemblance of opinions to real persons—from the author’s perspective, living or otherwise able to take legal action against him—is purely coincidental.

List of Fictitious Characters

Book 2

54128.png Windsor Langford Waterbury III and family members (Elizabeth, Hugo, and Pamela)

54128.png Talize Morningstar

54128.png Windsor Langford Waterbury Sr.

54128.png Elizabeth Adams Cameron Waterbury (a.k.a. Mumsie)

54128.png Thaddeus Waterbury

54128.png Soulange Micheaux

54128.png Windsor Langford Waterbury II (a.k.a. Deuce)

54128.png Victoria Donelson

54128.png Jasper Hardy

54128.png Minnie Bel Mar

54128.png Herbert Horace Huntington (a.k.a. HHH)

54128.png Clyde Henry Eagle

54128.png Tillman Merritt

54128.png Levi Goldenweiser (a.k.a. L.G.) and family members

54128.png Elisha Goldenweiser

54128.png Nelson Buckworthy

54128.png Tiny Mack

54128.png Popcorn Brown and family members

54128.png Cora Brewster Donelson Waterbury

54128.png Yukio Miyashita and his family in California

54128.png Schlomo Jacobson

54128.png Ahmed

54128.png Peter

54128.png Isaac

54128.png Captain Dunstan Towning

54128.png Nicky Towning

54128.png Jack Germain and family members

54128.png Joe Garfield and family members

54128.png Hope Lightener

54128.png Emile Lefebvre

54128.png Rose Brewster Waterbury

54128.png Eugenia Brewster Duke

All others named in the story are real people who lived and are quoted accurately, except in their interactive commentaries with fictitious characters.

Introduction

What a pleasant surprise to get a phone call and hear a wonderful and dear friend’s voice with belated season’s greetings. It was Jack Germain, who had been invited to join us for our Christmas gathering, but a prior engagement in California didn’t allow his lively presence to be in our company. I told him I had planned to share the recent revelation of a secret about my grandfather’s identity, and, after giving important background information, Elizabeth suggested that I talk about my life experiences.

I reviewed Grandfather’s harrowing trip, his becoming a history teacher at the Ethical Cultural School, and his raising two sons. My father and I embraced the values of the school, while my Uncle Thaddeus did quite the contrary; he was openly cold hearted, a money-influenced racist, and an embarrassment to the family tradition my grandparents had set. Jack interjected, Yes, the Waterburys were well known for their humanitarian work and financial support in areas of Negro civil rights, Native American rights, poverty, education, and children’s rights. You followed in your father’s footsteps in medicine, knowing you were on a promising pathway.

Well, as the story continued, I could feel that Jack wished he could have joined us, but he was looking forward to a complete review of both Grandfather’s and my stories. He told me not to forget to tell everyone about Joe and how we met at the hospital in 1952. I said to have a memorable time on the West Coast and that we would see each other real soon. Before saying goodbye, he quietly added, We just never know what lies ahead for us. We have too much unknown that we must face.

When the conversation was over, I became introspective and philosophical about the mystery of secrets in nature and those secrets that remain concealed during our human experience. Nature and the universe have their special secrets, and so does every human being. Several of nature’s secrets have been uncovered through man’s persistent efforts to explore the unknown; these secrets have been revealed through diligent observation, painstaking experimentation, and serendipitous stumbling. Nature remains open in its truthful offering of its secrets once unveiled; nature does not know how to be deceptive.

At given moments along the way, we should take the opportunity to explore ourselves in the same light as we wholeheartedly explore our outer surroundings. The mysteries and secrets within ourselves can be uncovered only by focusing on the transparent, the invisible vertebrae supporting our human existence. We need to pause and use wisdom and patience to bring us closer to the realization of the hidden meaning of life’s impulse. As we observe the marvelous beauty of each petal on a blossoming rose, we should take time to examine its underground root. The unrecognized root secretly gathers all the necessary nutrients and firmly provides the foundation upon which the lovely flower stands majestically in the sunshine and rain. Precious time is needed for the rosebud to become a full-flush flower. It is an ongoing task of self-examination and self-revelation, in which some of the secrets unfold to a clearer understanding of the meaning of life. But like nature and the universe, certain secrets of life are kept hidden for reasons beyond our most capable conscious awareness.

I needed to listen to Jack’s parting commentary-We have too much unknown that we must face-and accept my circumstances. But I wasn’t quite ready to be so confident. Later, while playing the piano in a solemn mood, lamenting my longing for Talize and the joy we wanted to share on that 1928 Thanksgiving evening, my governess, my faithful friend, appeared in the room. My thoughts drifted back to that painful moment in 1953 when I desperately needed her solace.

Author’s Note

Welcome back, interested and enthusiastic readers. This is the second in a series of three books that depict six generations of the fictitious Waterbury family. The principal character and narrator, Dr. Windsor Langford Waterbury III, an esteemed world authority in infectious diseases, shared an unexpected secret about the concealed identity of his revered grandfather to his family and close friends on Christmas Day 1965. He was upset that the memoirs had been hidden until he became a grandfather, but there was a purposeful and intentional reason for its delayed revelation.

In his memoirs, the grandfather recaptured his years living down south, his unbelievable escape, and his harrowing train trip to Baltimore, Maryland, with his two younger cousins at the beginning of the Civil War. He was given a noble assignment, which his mother projected. He would do a great service to help the neglected and unrecognized fellow beings, and generations to come would follow a similar path.

A teacher in Baltimore encouraged him to further his education by attending Columbia University. The grandfather would eventually meet his future wife there. She was a wealthy and socially privileged woman, who was deeply involved in humanitarian work and financial support for the underserved groups. He became a teacher of history and had two sons. The oldest son was father of the principal character. He became a well-respected physician. But a twist of fate occurred—he married a status-driven, arrogant, and controlling woman, whose true character wasn’t revealed until after their vows.

After the grandfather’s memoirs were discussed, the principal character’s daughter, quite moved by the power of her great-grandfather’s story, pointed out that the lives of both her father and great-grandfather had paralleled closely, and she wanted to hear her father’s remembrances as well. With much urging from everyone listening, he started sharing his own life from 1901 to 1929.

The principal character was comforted and spiritually influenced by Soulange, his governess and caregiver for the Waterbury family. She was clearly the salvation during most of the storms that had developed during the principal character’s childhood years and his early manhood. He grew up to follow in his father’s footsteps. He became an empathetic physician and embraced their multigenerational civil rights advocacy.

While in his training, he met a fellow medical student, who happened to be a Native American. Her name was Talize Morningstar. Her kind and caring words moved him. A friendship developed, and a deep love blossomed. They made plans to have a formal wedding service at Trinity Church in New York. But to his bigoted mother, having a half-breed as a potential daughter-in-law was more than she could bear. Her interfering scheme at Thanksgiving dinner in 1928 ultimately turned everything in his relationship with Talize upside down.

In addition to the turmoil from the course of events on that Thanksgiving Day, the principal character still had to make a career decision in medicine. With such anguish and pain burning inside him due to Talize’s support and approval denied, how was he going to decide?

Let us turn to the beginning of book 2.

CHAPTER 1

Succumbs to Tuberculosis during the New England Epidemic in 1929 (Event 21)

I recalled that painful moment in 1953 when Soulange approached me, and I found myself irresistibly spilling my heart out to her once again.

Where was the sense in it all? Moment after moment, a recalcitrant, bitter taste lingered. It was like a deeply scratched LP record, with the phonograph needle caught in the same groove, playing the same annoying sound repeatedly. What could I have done to have prevented such a devastating circumstance on that horrible Thanksgiving?

Soulange, ever patient, ever fortifying with her saintly wisdom, replied, Windy, you do not realize that the consequence wasn’t yours to alter or influence. Your intention was honorable. Your expectation wasn’t to materialize. We must accept and understand there is a bigger reason, but we are not ready to have it revealed. But we do have faith readily at hand to rely upon. I shall paraphrase James who stated so clearly in the New Testament, ‘A life long journey requires both patience and perseverance to face the many trials; through the furnace, your faith will be tested, and you shall remain standing. The resulting rewards will make you whole, with all your needs fulfilled’ (James 1:3–4, paraphrased). She smiled ever so warmly, and I was temporarily lifted to a safe, assuring thought.

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I was brought back to the present moment as she was about to speak. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I was immediately reminded that all of us would come together in the library again to pick up our discussion about my future in medicine in 1929.

Time had seemed to stand still, even though a mere twenty-four hours had passed in that interim from our last visit. What was it about the meaning of time that could offer a little more reflection and appreciation when we stopped and thought that time really was precious in our lives? It wasn’t just the measurer of all things, but is itself immeasurable, and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed.⁶ Time offers the gifts of opportunity, and with each opportunity, we can search internally for an awareness of our own creative potential, constantly attempting to manifest for our well-being and expression. During that search, discover a clearer path to allow fate to lead you to an opening, a broadening of self, and you can go forward and not look back with regret. My thoughts were getting too philosophical, so I let everyone in, and we took our places. Fate seemed to be a good place to start.

Fate stepped in to help me decide to do research or general practice. I was offered a one-year position as lecturer at Harvard Medical School with clinic responsibilities at Boston City Hospital with infectious diseases. Should I decline such an exciting opportunity? I felt Talize encouraging me, so I would stay in Boston for at least one more year. In the winter of 1929 to 1930, another event led me to knock on death’s door and change the course of my entire life.

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The summer and early fall of 1929 were remarkably hot throughout the East Coast, and with that heat came many hot tips for the speculators on Wall Street. The stock market had enjoyed an unprecedented eight- to nine-year high ride, but by spring, there were warning signs that appearances were deceiving. On March 25, the stock market plummeted 10 to 12 percent, and the interest rates soared to 20 percent, the highest in nine years. Charles Mitchell, one of the wizards of the financial district, and his National City Bank temporarily saved it.

Many of the players were buying on margin, placing only 10 percent of their money down while their brokers’ loans would account for the remainder of their purchases. Many people chose to put all their life savings into this machine, and even though those definitive, worrisome forecasts were visible, they kept spinning the wheel. I can paraphrase Proverbs 22:3 with 1 Corinthians 13:12 to summarize the general attitudes of the times. The prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the unaware, yet assuming fools, who see through the glass, darkly and take much for granted, pass on and are punished.

Since they assumed themselves to be wealthier, they spent more money, buying expensive cars, clothing, and bigger houses with maid service. They also splurged on lavish parties and took luxury cruises. The stock market hit an all-time high on September 3, following the highly influential astrology forecast over that Labor Day weekend from Miss Evangeline Adams; it precipitated potential buyers to buy more. The following day, September 4, was the hottest day of the summer, a record-breaking 94 degrees; but within twenty-four hours, economist Roger Babson would deliver the most frigid financial outlook at the sixteenth Annual Business Conference in Massachusetts:

Fair weather cannot always continue. The Federal Reserve System has put banks in a strong position, but it has not changed human nature. More people are borrowing and speculating today than ever in our history. Sooner or later, a crash is coming, and it may be terrific. Wise are those investors who now get out of debt and reef their sails; pay up your loans and avoid margin speculation … The general public will have the desire to cash in, margin accounts will be closed out, and then there will be a stampede for selling which will exceed anything that the stock exchange has ever witnessed.⁷

By then, the support backing the exchange was unraveling, and the high rollers watched over the next six weeks until Black Thursday, October 24, when stock prices dropped 22 percent, and finally the crushing blows came on October 28 and October 29. The investors fell hard and quick, oblivious to the forewarnings; they hadn’t sold their stocks, and they lost everything. But President Hoover, himself an investor, declared on October 25, The fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.⁸

Unemployment became rampant and choked the nation’s people with homelessness and hunger. People were sleeping in parks, under bridges, and on subways; they were getting arrested so they could stay in jail cells. They built makeshift shacks of scrap metal, discarded boxes, and cardboard. These makeshift communities were called Hoovervilles. The people turned to an equally stunned government for answers, and nothing immediate was recommended. Hoover felt the crash was a temporary halt in the prosperity of a great people.⁹ In the months following the stock fiasco, the economic picture was summarized quite clearly—"Jerusalem has one Wailing Wall, but in Wall Street, every wall is wet with tears."¹⁰

The Waterbury funding was managed well by a conservative broker, who had been a friend of Grandfather and Mumsie for years. He communicated with me throughout the summer, and I told him to do whatever was necessary to protect the finances. He told me Uncle Thaddeus and several of the other wealthier families had wisely transferred funds to high-grade New York City bonds, gold, and silver. At this point, Soulange asked to excuse herself for a moment, and while we waited, we reviewed the year 1929 with a few more details. When she returned, she was carrying a book and an old yellowed envelope; I continued with the story.

The consequences of the unemployment of masses of people, homelessness, and hunger brought great despair and strife on the psyche of America. During the winter of 1929–1930, there was a marked rise of all illness in all ages, notably another epidemic of tuberculosis throughout New England. The history of tuberculosis is the history of civilization¹¹ itself; it has evolved alongside civilization with the same effects over the past several thousand years. It has been called phthisis, the Greek word for wasting; the Great White Plague; and galloping consumption. Its cause wasn’t understood until 1882, when Dr. Robert Koch, a German scientist, demonstrated that the tubercle bacillus organism was present in all victims of tuberculosis without exception. If you had TB, the bigger issues to consider, distinct from most other illnesses, were the appreciation of the suffering, the severed hopes, the washed-away friendships, and the individual great talents extinguished prematurely.

Many of the world’s most gifted contributors in the arts and sciences suffered with tuberculosis. During the age of romanticism, three notables come to mind—the great composer Frederic Chopin, the virtuoso violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini, and the poet John Keats.

Chopin’s sister had died of tuberculosis in 1827 when Chopin was only seventeen years old. Her death left a lasting impression on him, especially the sufferings she’d experienced with alleged treatments. During the Christmas holidays of 1831, he developed depression, insomnia, and indifference to all matters, including his beloved music. Time passed, and he started composing again. A major influenza struck him in the winter of 1836, which led to his first, obvious symptoms of TB. As he became sicker, he became more productive in his composition; this affect was similar to Franz Schubert’s productivity after his syphilis infection advanced in him. But the TB compromised Chopin’s health every winter; he lingered with frailty and persistent coughing fits until he died in October 1849 from the complications of his TB.

Paganini lived in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, charming his audiences with superhuman technique and romantic compositional prowess. He mesmerized fellow composers Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer during his concerts with emotional interpretations that left them all speechless. He called his beautiful Guarneri violin his cannon. But like Chopin, he developed TB in addition to syphilis in early adulthood, and his towering, thin frame became even more contorted and grotesque as the ravishing years of disease literally consumed him. He had quite an ominous appearance on stage. He lost all his bottom teeth, and with his emaciated body and pallid look, he added a sinister component in his all-black outfits; he had the appearance of a giant bat. His prominently long fingers and the ability to hyperextend his shoulders and finger joints added to his unusual presence while performing. The TB spread from his lung to his larynx, which caused his speech to diminish to a mere whisper and gave him prolonged periods of fatigue and pain, leading the German poet Heinrich Heine to say that Paganini’s face was pallid and corpse-like … Did that look of entreaty belong to one who was deathly sick … or was it a dead man risen from his grave, a vampire with a violin who would surely suck the money from our pockets, if not the blood from our hearts?¹²

While dying, the half-conscious Paganini reportedly played a phenomenal improvisation on his violin until his last breath silenced his gift. After his death, people in the local town said they had heard a ghostly violin sound coming from his coffin in the village graveyard.

The poet John Keats was exposed to TB while taking care of his younger brother for two months in intimate contact while confined to a single room. At the age of twenty-five, symptoms developed, and an exhausting sea voyage from London to Naples to seek warmer climates further aggravated the course of his disease. He died within a few months of the trip with an autopsy revealing almost complete disintegration of his lungs. He had managed to publish his poetry during his last four painful and compromising years, and in his short life, Keats went down in history as one of England’s romantic literary greats.

The most important factor was to promote the prevention of TB by protecting children from irresponsible, active TB patients, covering one’s mouth and nose while coughing with a disposable tissue or gauze pad (and discard responsibly), not openly spitting on the ground, getting exposed to sunlight and fresh air, taking frequent hygienic measures, washing hands, brushing teeth, and avoiding regular consumption of alcoholic beverages. Sir Marcus Paterson, British pulmonologist, said, There are two types of consumptives that will not get well—alcoholics and damn fools!¹³

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Considering the background of all this information about tuberculosis and its susceptible influence, I understood what I was facing at the clinic in Boston City. I was much busier now as an attending, and there just weren’t enough resources or manpower to handle the overload. Although I instructed all the active cases of TB, who were on the floor, on how to handle their secretions, there were too many times that prevention couldn’t be addressed. I was overworked and still upset about the loss of Talize. I had prolonged coughing, high fevers, and fatigue for several weeks. I called Soulange, who thought I had pneumonia again. She instructed me to come home to get treatment. Shortly thereafter, I coughed up blood, and we both knew I had active tuberculosis.

Having pneumonia was one thing; I was compromised, bedridden, and ill for several weeks; but after the first five days, I felt myself getting stronger and healthier with minimal setbacks. I returned to Boston with a complete recovery. However, tuberculosis, which I had witnessed firsthand through my medical school training and internship, was a distinctive entity. It would be best to have Soulange give you the description of how close the TB came to shortening my life, as it had done to Keats, Chopin, Paganini, the literary Brontë sisters, Thoreau, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Edward Trudeau, and countless others.

Soulange was her usual self, discussing the matter as if those thirty-six years were just yesterday. Windy was quite ill, like his father, when he developed the Spanish flu. I was grateful he was in New York when complications ensued. His fatigue worsened, and the high fevers, night sweats, coughing fits, and coughing up of blood raged on, causing a fifty-pound weight loss, a collapsed right upper lobe, and frequent headaches and delirious statements. He was placed in a private room at Roosevelt Hospital and restrained periodically. There were times when he screamed out, ‘I have to take care of my patients. Why am I in this bed?’ ‘Soulange, I’m sick! Can’t anyone help me?’ ‘Nurse, that patient in the next bed needs another dose of morphine. He’s in a lot of pain!’ ‘Everyone around us has TB. We are all doomed to die!’ When he broke out in a sweat, he soaked his pajamas and both sheets. I’d place a cool washcloth on his forehead and give him the same herbal remedy I used for his pneumonia and for his father. And then he got better.

I looked at Soulange and interjected, Don’t water down your offerings in helping me recover. The nurses told me about your round-the-clock care with the herbal tea, the dutiful changing, lifting, talking, and encouraging me.

Soulange humbly replied, Nobody here wants to know what I did.

Well, I know what the nurses said several times—that the doctor felt I was going to die one night, and the next morning, I was still alive. They told me you were the sister of Jesus, raising Lazarus from the grave.

"Now, that’s not the real story. Let me tell the truth here. The herbal tea consisted of wild oregano oil, wild sage, cod liver oil, and other spices I learned to make in New Orleans. The tea was given three times a day, and then I would speak to you, as I did your father, with an affirmative prayer. I would recite two verses from the Bible—Exodus 23, verses 25 and 26: ‘I will take sickness away from the midst of thee, and I will give you the full number of your days’ and Exodus 15, verse 26: ‘I am the Lord that healeth thee’. I have always had an unshakable faith in God, but I was further assured when I read about the life of Myrtle Fillmore, the cofounder of the Unity Movement; and Dr. H. Emilie Cady, New York physician and spiritual healer."

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She went on to say that Myrtle Fillmore had lived in a family where most of its members succumbed to tuberculosis, and by March 1886, her TB had advanced to the point that the doctor told her she would live only a few months. She was a mother of two young sons. Her own faith became more consciously revealed through a lecture she’d heard; it made her aware that she was a child of God and therefore did not inherit sickness.¹⁴ Over the next two years, she became more active and healthier, and eventually she was free of tuberculosis. Her husband, Charles Fillmore, also a victim of TB in his hip, experienced the same healing.

Soulange opened an old envelope; she read the letter sent in October 1892 to each member of the Unity Movement, which the Fillmores had created. Mrs. Fillmore wrote, There is within you a Principle which will at your recognition spring forth and make your existence full of joy and happiness. This Principle is the source of your life, your health, your intelligence, your love; and you manifest it just in proportion to your acknowledgment of these qualities.¹⁵

It was at this time that an article by Dr. H. Emilie Cady was brought to the attention of Mrs. Fillmore. The Fillmores were so impressed by her insights that they asked her to write a series of articles, to be contributions to their monthly Unity Magazine publication. They eventually became bound in two publications, How I Used Truth and Lessons in Truth. Soulange shared a few excerpts from it:

Is it difficult for you to understand why God does not keep our thoughts right instead of permitting us through ignorance to drift into wrong thoughts, and so bring trouble on ourselves? Well, we are not automatons. Your child will never learn