Page 17 - Boca Club News - January '25

Boca Club News, Page 17
Essays on Life:

Growing Old with Dignity

By Sonia E. Ravech. Sonia is response, “It’s too depressing to attend events surrounded willing to take advantage of that vulnerability. Although
a native of Massachusetts and by so many old women.” the elderly often find it hard to reach out, their needs are
a resident of Broken Sound for I couldn’t understand that attitude. I found it simple. They just want someone to talk to; to laugh with
more than 30 years. She is the inspirational that a woman, suffering from a multitude over lunch; to share stories of their past; to help them with
mother of four, grandmother of of ills—diabetes, coronary disease, arthritis—was still shopping and other chores. Someone to reassure them they
seven and great-grandmother of motivated to put on her makeup, dress in her most are still relevant.
four. She has been the facilitator fashionable outfit and get herself to a sisterhood meeting, As the years rush by, and the pill bottles multiply on
of the Broken Sound Memoir even if it meant calling a taxi and using a walker or cane. my bathroom vanity, I have to accept that I’ve joined the
Writers’ Workshop for the past At Broken Sound many seniors, well into their eighties, rank of old age. I needed to acquire hearing aids when my
seven years. even their nineties, still exercise at the gym. They play family complained that the volume on the television was
When I was young I revered the elderly. They had so golf, pickleball and tennis, enjoy a card game, swim, attend too loud. They insisted that I purchase a medic alert button
much wisdom to impart, and a wealth of experience to lectures, the theatre and social events. They lead vibrant if I intended to keep on living alone. I have pondered if
share if only one took the time to listen. Too many young and productive lives. my occasional forgetfulness will become senility? I’ve
people view the elderly as cranky, senile and slow. They But others are not as fortunate. They suffer from worried that the day will come when I can no longer drive
do not have the patience to listen. loneliness and depression. Some made the decision to my automobile. I have already needed to have cataract
Although it is true that some elderly are rude, impatient relocate to a warmer climate when their bones could no surgery and to replace one deteriorating, arthritic hip. Will
and irritable, I venture to guess they exhibited those traits longer tolerate the cold winters of the North and Midwest, I also need a walker or cane one day?
even before reaching old age. and now find themselves removed from family and friends. I pray that GOD will grant me the privilege of living
When I was 35 I was the youngest member ever elected Many have lost their life-long partners and are struggling more years and allow me to do so with dignity. I pray that
to serve as the President of my congregation’s sisterhood. to adjust. if I am fortunate enough to do so there will be that special
It was mandated that I try to encourage more women It’s often difficult for the elderly to keep up with all the someone in my life who will have the patience to listen
of my generation to become active. Although I worked new technology surrounding their everyday lives, and they to my ramblings, and if I stumble be willing to hold my
tirelessly towards that goal I was constantly rebuffed by the become easily confused. There are too many scammers hand and help guide me along my final journey.
Film Review:

“JOY”…The Birth of IVF

By Nils A. Shapiro on the project faced and the ever-perfect Bill Nighy in the role of Patrick
It would be difficult to find a film more timely amid throughout the 1960s Steptoe, a noted surgeon at the time.
the resulting throes of the past election year than this and ’70s, both in Director Ben Taylor deserves a world of credit for the
absorbing British production now streaming on Netflix, se e ki ng fundi ng pace, emotion and drama that sustains one’s attention from
a drama based on the true history of the development of from the medical the opening scene to end credits. Especially riveting are
IVF—in vitro fertilization, which resulted in the birth of organizations—whose the several microscopic views of in vitro fertilization (in
what is commonly (but incorrectly) called the world’s attitudes often matched a petri dish, not a test tube).
first “test tube baby,” and is now universally recognized those of today’s most And when on July 25th, 1978 in Lancashire, England,
as one of the 20th Century’s most remarkable scientific extreme opponents— Lesley Jolen Brown gives birth to a daughter, Louise Joy
achievements, earning for its leading figure the 2010 Nobel and in the actual Brown—hence the title of this film—by planned Caesarian
Prize in Medicine, 32 years later. breakthrough research (C-section) surgery, I admit to getting a bit choked up.
The option to make the IVF procedure available to and experimentation In a very real sense this success may never have
women who are otherwise physically unable to carry through involved as they occurred were it not for Jean Purdy’s determination to
a natural birth is today mired in political controversy, viewed worked with the many continue the struggle when Robert Edwards had begun to
by some as equally unacceptable as abortion. Ironically, childless women who volunteered to participate in the shut down the project in frustration. It turns out that Jean
when approached for a statement in 1978 at the time of the experimental research in hopes of success in being able herself suffered from endometriosis, a disease that made
first successful IVF birth, the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal to become mothers. her infertile—unable to give birth naturally—and a man
Albino Luciani—later to become Pope Paul I—refused to The cast of “JOY” is uniformly superb. James Norton who had asked for her hand in marriage changed his mind
criticize the procedure, saying instead that it enabled the portrays Robert Edwards, the lead scientist who will and wed another when he learned that Jean could not give
woman to give birth to a child she wanted. later receive the Nobel Prize when, tragically, both of his him a family.
This film makes abundantly clear the enormous following associates will have passed away by 2010: Jean If I were to name one flaw in this film it would be
difficulties the three main medical professionals Purdy, an embryologist, played by Thomasina McKenzie, its lack of an explanation of the in vitro fertilization
procedure, relying instead on brief microscopic videos of
the egg being fertilized by sperm in the petri dish and the
beginning of the multiplying of the embryonic cells that
will ultimately form a human baby—two visuals that will
stay with you long after the film is over. We as viewers
are assumed to already be informed on the subject, which
is not always the case. In vitro is defined as an “assisted
reproductive technology,” and is intended to be used
to help women who are otherwise unable to give birth
561-989-0611 naturally—as one example, if the fallopian tubes are
blocked. The term is also described as “any biological
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