It’s an infinitely better choice than the alternative.I also had the good fortune to be raised by very funny parents who had very funny friends. by Julia Reed . October/November 2016. illustration: Michael Witte ... videos featuring the senior vice president for public affairs calmly telling viewers that “it is IARC’s job to find cancer hazards,” and that so far the outfit has found “sunlight, breathing air…working in a barbershop” all … The photo of her dead self, living it up, made the front page of the There’s another essay about the Mississippi coroner who declared one poor man dead–except that he wasn’t. One of the things I hope people take away from the book–and one of the things we might should teach the rest of the country, especially in these increasingly fraught times–is the crucial importance of being able to laugh at oneself.Willie was born in Yazoo City, not far from where I grew up, so of course I knew of him, even as a kid. Julia went in for a routine MRI in October and the tumor was back on her brain. 39K likes.
She was seated onstage at the Saenger Theater, a cigarette in one hand and champagne in the other while people went up to pay their respects–or just plain ogle. Thank God I got myself lickety split to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville and into the brilliant hands of Dr. Jordan Berlin (I told him his name sounds like a doc from The Edge of Night) and the incredible team they have there. In order to do this, Justin has to hire care for Julia. Julia will forever be Faith's hero by this selfless act! Of course, I’ve already planned a kajillion parties.There are plenty (of essays) about Mississippi, and especially about the Delta, since that’s always been “home” to me. I decided that seemed like a pretty good way to make a living.Plus, my next-door neighbors Bern and Franke Keating wrote a took pictures for As for how far we have to go, Mississippi has done a pretty good job lately at facing down some our more shameful and horrific ghosts. But we should not allow ourselves to get complacent on that subject, ever.And, of course, we have a whole lot more work to do on a lot of fronts.
One month later, Julia underwent her second and very long surgery to remove the tumor. I am especially grateful that I was born in the time and place that I was–the Greenville I grew up in was a cultural hotbed, full of writers and artists and lots of goings on. The most recent news that the Reed family received was that Julia's cancer has spread into her spinal cord and throughout her brain.
Life is pretty funny, and laughter is really, really good for you. We had a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, which is still there, thank goodness. Julia's Fight Against Rare Cancer - Fund, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, this type of care is very expensive, but I think you would all agree, it is time to get this incredible superhero home with her family! This is a blog and fundraiser for Julia Adams and her fight against a rare form of childhood brain cancer. But as you are aware, this past year has been especially difficult for them as they were not able to be all together under one roof. It’s across a country road from the pasture where I used to keep my horse. Many doctors told her to terminate her pregnancy and begin receiving treatment for her cancer, but Julia is a fighter and chose to give Faith life.
But as Jon Meacham says in his foreword: “Her canvas is the whole South, stretching from the dives of New Orleans up through her beloved Delta and winding up, naturally, in the northern reaches of Virginia, at the Madeira School for girls.”What I hope people get from them is a view of the South in all its complicated, sometimes embarrassing glory. Now that I’m going to be a homeowner in Greenville, I look forward to getting more deeply involved in the community and its many needs.Dave and I have done events like this a couple of times before. In one of the essays in the book, I make reference to our abysmal record in nutrition and education by saying that at this point we should just print up bumper stickers reading “First in Fatness, Last in Literacy.” That is actually not funny. When I returned home for visits, I’d rent the biggest car I could find in Memphis–even though in those days there was a plane from Memphis to Greenville–roll down the windows and blare the air, and breathe in that inimitable Delta scent of soil and pesticide. While she was still pregnant, in November of 2013, Julia underwent surgery to remove her tumor. In October of 2013, Julia was diagnosed with Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) which is a rare and fast-growing cancerous tumor of the brain and spinal cord. She needs to be home with her family. Plus, there’s just a lot of stuff down here that’s flat out funny. I can hardly wait to be in there with my hound dog Henry. At this time, Julia was pregnant with her precious little Faith. Our conversation onstage is not unlike the conversations we’ve had in various bars around the South. When I come to Jackson to sign at Lemuria and again for the Book Fest, I want to make a lot time to experience the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which I hear is amazing. Next spring, my eighth book, Julia Reed’s New Orleans, a cooking and entertaining book that is a companion volume to Julia Reed’s South, will be published by Rizzoli. What else is there to do? I swear it was like heaven. The surgery was successful and Julia once again fought hard enduring many rounds of chemo and radiation. I thought everybody was funny until I left home, and then, sadly, I found out otherwise.I have a baseball cap that says, “American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God.” It was given to me as a joke, but it’s sort of on the money. I cover everything from Scotch whiskey to the lowly possum and a lot of stuff in between: our food, our music, our fun-loving proclivities, our tendency toward committing a whole lot of mayhem in the name of the Lord. I was still a kid when I had a wonderful, rich life and career as a journalist in Washington and New York.
In August of 2014, Julia finished her treatment and began receiving good news of clean MRI's of her brain and spinal cord. I have a constitution of steel and hadn’t noticed.