INTERNATIONAL

DECEMBER 2017

How to Get Rid of Regrets

PAGE ... 26

A Perfect Guitar for Christmas

PAGE ... 52

M IRACLES
in Real Life
Four stories that will inspire
awe and touch your heart
PAGE ... 100

I Was Blind, But Now I See

PAGE ... 72
DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

41 Hours Alone in the Snow

PAGE ... 34

Breast Cancer: Are You at Risk?

PAGE ... 56

NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE ........... 18

LAUGHTER, THE BEST MEDICINE ...................... 50
LIFE’S LIKE THAT .................................................. 84
WORD POWER ...................................................... 117
 Contents DECEMBER 2017
P. | 100
26 No More Regrets
Changing your thought process
can free you from feelings of
guilt, shame and sorrow.
Drama in Real Life
34 41 Hours Alone
in the Snow
The teenager was lost on
the Swiss mountain. Then
a snowstorm blew in.
42 Making Yogurt,
Healing Minds
How a psychologist turned
entrepreneur—and helped
turn around lives.
52 The Christmas Guitar
Taking his son to buy a guitar
of his own unwraps long-lost
memories of another purchase.
2 | 12›2017
AMY KLEWITZ; M ODEL: KATH ERIN E SQUI RE. THI S PAGE: A MANDA F RIEDMAN
56 Lower Your Risk for
PHOTO, ON THE COVER: PHOTOGRAP H BY ERIC OGDEN ; HAI R AN D M AKEUP:
Breast Cancer
Some 60 percent of all cases
in Europe are linked to causes
we can control.
64 For Better or Worse
Love spoons or love padlocks?
We bring you 23 surprising love
and marriage customs.
72 I Was Blind, But
Now I See
I learned of an operation that
promised to restore my sight—
though it wasn’t without risks.
Photo Feature
78 Oh Christmas Tree!
Join us on a tour around Europe
of the continent’s most
remarkable festive trees.
 86 Creature Comforts
Readers’ real-life stories of pets
and wildlife that amuse, help,
heal and inspire.

92 Hong Kong, 20 Years Later

Our writer, a former resident,
returns to find the city as
vibrant—and quirky—as ever.
Bonus Read
100 Miracles in Real Life
Genuine miracles are precious
and rare. Four stories that will
touch your heart.

P. | 52
DEPARTMENTS

14 The Truth About Flu

Shots READER FAVORITES
PHOTO (BOTTOM ): DEREK SHAP TON . ILLUSTRATI ON (TOP) : BODI L JANE

16 Surviving Substandard
Sleep 5 Editor’s Note
18 News from the World 6 Quotable Quotes
of Medicine 7 Letters
20 Medical Mystery 8 See the World Differently
19 My Life
20 Good News
22 Finish This Sentence
24 As Kids See It
50 Laughter,
the Best Medicine
62 Points to Ponder
84 Life’s Like That
114 Brainteasers
116 Trivia
117 Word Power
P. | 72 120
119 All in a Day’s Work
Next Month
121 Last Laugh

12›2017 | 3|
 I NTE RNATI O NAL

Editor-in-Chief
Raimo Moysa

Editors
Mary S. Aikins
Janie Allen
Alex Finer

Art Director
Marilee Lamarque

Assistant Art Director

Shirley Khaitan

Rights and Permissions Manager

Thomas Dobrowolski

Content Operations Manager

Lisa Pigeon
Published by TMBI International, New York, USA

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS, INC.

President and Chief Executive Officer
Bonnie Kintzer
Chief Operating Officer
Brian Kennedy
Reader’s Digest Founders: DeWitt Wallace, 1889–1981; Lila Acheson Wallace, 1889–1984

Copyright 2016 TMBI, White Plains, NY, USA.

Reproduction in any manner in whole or in part in English or other languages prohibited.
All rights reserved throughout the world.

LET US KNOW if you are moved—or provoked—by any item in

the magazine. Share your thoughts by sending an email to:
editor@readersdigestinternational.com

4 | 12›2017
 Editor’s Note
Keeping It Real
WITH ALL THE CONTROVERSY swirling around “fake news” in the
media, it’s a good time to remind you, dear readers, that you won’t
find any of that in Reader’s Digest. Here’s why: We are committed to
publishing strong and accurate stories.
Millions of people around the world turn to this little magazine every
month because of the care with which we document our stories. We guard
readers’ trust by holding our editorial researchers, editors and writers to
high standards. For example, we require our writers to talk to people
with first-hand knowledge of their subject. Then we give their story to
fact-checkers, who confirm that sources were accurately quoted. We get
our facts straight.
What about the articles we reprint from other publica-
tions, you ask? Thanks to our global presence, we
have researchers and fact-checkers around the
world who check these stories for us.
For example, in this issue, “Making Yogurt, Heal-
ing Minds,” from the UK’s Observer magazine, was
vetted by our European Editorial Office. “I Was
Blind But Now I see,” from Toronto Life, was thor-
oughly checked out by our editorial office in
Montreal. Our drama, “41 Hours Alone in the
Snow,” from the Swiss SonntagsZeitung mag-
azine, was confirmed by our Swiss edition.
You can feel secure in knowing that
Reader’s Digest is in the real news business.
Always have been. Always will be.
No fake news here.

04›2017 | 5|
 Quotable Quotes
JEALOUSY IS You know that old saying:
ALL THE FUN “You’re never too old
to play. You’re only too
YOU THINK old for low-rise jeans.”
THEY HAD. E LLE N D E G E N E R E S ,
ERICA JONG, wr it er television host

F ROM TOP: KEN M CKAY/I TV/SH UTTERSTOC K. SHUTTERSTOCK. DAN CALLISTE R/SHU TTE RSTOCK
WHAT LIES BEHIND US AND WHAT LIES BEFORE
US ARE TINY MATTERS COMPARED TO WHAT LIES
WITHIN US. H E N RY S TA N LE Y H A S K I N S , a u t h o r a n d s t o c k b r o k e r

If your ship doesn’t

come in, swim out to it!
J O N AT H A N W I N T E R S , c o m e d i a n

THE NICE THING Little did I know the

ABOUT THINGS THAT problem with fairy
ARE URGENT IS THAT
IF YOU WAIT LONG tales: They never
ENOUGH THEY AREN’T address logistics.
URGENT ANYMORE. T I F FA N Y D U F U , chi e f
A M O S T V E R S K Y, p s y c h o l o g i s t l e a d ership of f i c er at L evo

In three words I can sum up

everything I’ve learned about life:
It goes on.
RO B E R T F ROS T

6 | 12›2017
 Letters
READERS COMMENT ON OUR RECENT ISSUES

Freedom From Fear

In my experience fear is the most
destructive psychic energy of all
(“How to Stop Worrying,”
October). I was born in 1942
during the second world war and
absorbed my mother´s fears with
devastating effects on my life: I’ve
been divorced twice, struggled
economically and had to be fitted with a cardiac pacemaker some
years ago. Neither medication nor therapy was able to cure my
General Anxiety Disorder. Only when I really started to work on my
own mental health seven years ago did the GAD start to fade and I
now no longer suffer from fear. MATTHIAS BURGGRAF, Germany, via e-mail

Travels With RD swered questions about petroleum

Thank you for “Finish This
Sentence.” This so-original depart-
ment gives me the opportunity to
travel and meet people from all
around the world.
ISABELLE, Bordeaux, France
Every Stage of My Life
Readers’ Digest magazine has ac-
companied me since I was 14. I have
now turned 74. At age 32, although
too old to be hired at Shell Chemical
Company, at the job interview I an-
so well that I got the job! I had ac-
quired all the necessary knowledge
by reading and rereading Reader’s
Digest. That’s not all. Thanks to your
health articles, for decades I’ve been
able to relieve many health prob-
lems among family members and
close friends. Your narratives on
brave and caring people give read-
ers the courage to live. Believe me,
my message is not an advertisement,
but a statement!
PAUL MARTINEZ, Vitrolles, France

12›2017 | 7
8
|
11›2017
P HOTOS: © JIM DEN EVAN /BARC ROFT USA /GETTY IMAGES
 SEE
THE WORLD ...

Turn the page

11›2017 | 9
10 | 11›2017
... DIFFERENTLY
Even if this looks like the work of
extraterrestrials, these circular
shapes are purely human in origin.
After more than two years of plan-
ning and 15 days of hands-on work,
the American artist Jim Denevan
and three of his colleauges cre-
ated this spectacular piece of art
in the desert sands of Black Rock,
Nevada. A circumference of more
than 14 kilometers not only guar-
antees that this work is visible at
an altitude of 12,000 meters (this
page), but also makes it the largest
sand drawing in the world!

11›2017 | 11
HEALTH

Experts debunk
some common
misconceptions
about this potentially
life-saving vaccine

The Truth
About
Flu Shots
BY JENN SINRICH

YOU CAN SKIP IT BECAUSE YOU body’s immunity to influenza either

PHOTO BY M ATTHEW COHENW

GOT ONE LAST YEAR through natural infection or vaccina-

“Flu viruses are constantly changing,
and it is not unusual for new flu
viruses to appear each year,” says
Caroline Sullivan, nurse practitioner
and assistant professor of nursing at
Columbia University in New York
City. “Studies have shown that the
tion declines over time.”
IT’S TOO LATE IN
THE YEAR TO WORRY NOW
Flu season starts as early as October
and can continue into May, so if you
find yourself unvaccinated in late

12 | 11›2017
January or February, a flu shot is
still recommended.
YOU ALREADY HAD THE
FLU THIS YEAR, SO
THE VACCINE IS USELESS
Are you sure it was the flu and not
some other virus? “Many other
viruses can feel like the flu,” says Ali
Mileski, RNC, senior staff nurse at
a New York City hospital. Even if it
was, getting one strain of influenza
doesn’t protect you from the others.
IT WILL GIVE YOU
A FULL-FLEDGED FLU
According to the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC), flu vaccines are
made in two ways: with inactivated
(and therefore noninfectious)
viruses or with no virus at all. Some
people have a low-grade fever and
muscle aches following the shot, but
they last only a day or two and are
considerably less severe than
the symptoms caused by the flu.
YOU WILL HAVE TO FORGO
YOUR WORKOUT THAT DAY
Working out before or after you
get jabbed may actually help your
body churn out more flu-fighting
antibodies. In a very small Iowa
State University study, students who
jogged or biked for 90 minutes
after they got the flu shot had nearly
double the number of antibodies
compared to students who
didn’t exercise.
YOU’RE TOO OLD
TO GET THE VACCINE
Vaccination is especially important
for people 65 years and older because
they are at high risk for complications
from flu. In recent years, the CDC
notes, it’s estimated that between 71
percent and 85 percent of deaths and
between 54 percent and 70 percent
of hospitalizations related to the
disease have occurred among people
in that age group.
Ask your doctor about two vaccines
designed for people 65 and older.
The “high dose vaccine” contains
four times the amount of antigen as
the regular flu shot and, in one clini-
cal trial, resulted in 24 percent fewer
influenza infections as compared to
the standard dose flu vaccine. The
“adjuvanted flu vaccine” creates a
stronger immune response; an obser-
vational study showed that it was 63
percent more effective than regular-
dose unadjuvanted flu shots.
THE SHOT HURTS!
This is a surprisingly big concern,
even for grown-ups; a Target/Harris
Interactive poll showed that 23
percent of adults don’t get their flu
shot because of a fear of needles.
But avoiding the misery of influenza
is worth a pinpirck, so do what you
can to lessen the pain. “Tensing a
muscle makes it hurt more, so try to
relax the arm and focus on breath-
ing,” says Amy Baxter, MD, founder
and CEO of MMJ Labs.
11›2017 | 13
HEALTH
How to cope after a
bad night’s slumber
Surviving
Substandard
Sleep
BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT
After hours of tossing and turn-
ing, surviving the day ahead feels like
a tall order. Your first instinct might
be to reach for a vat of coffee. This
may pick you up temporarily, but
remember that caffeine could nega-
tively affect your sleep quality up to
16 hours later. Feel free to grab a cup,
but be reasonable in your consump-
tion so as not to set yourself up for a
second rough night.
“The best thing you can do is just
hit the ground running,” says Neil
Stanley, a member of the European
Sleep Research Society. “You’re go-
14 | 11›2017
ing to feel some sleep inertia [other-
wise known as grogginess and
disorientation] for a while, but don’t
let that frame your day. Open the
blinds and get some daylight so your
body knows it’s time to be awake, or
step out for some fresh air.”
If you’re struggling when the after-
noon rolls around, a short snooze
could help you over the hump. The
ideal nap is 20 minutes—longer ones
ISTOCK PHOTO
put you at risk of entering, and then
interrupting, deep-stage sleep, caus-
ing you to feel even fuzzier than be-
fore. Don’t be too concerned about
whether or not you actually doze off:
in a study from the sleep research
center of Loughborough University
in Britain, fatigued people who
had consumed 200
milligrams of coffee
(equivalent to two
Before bed, unwind with a relaxing
activity such as reading, meditation
or listening to quiet music. If you’re
feeling worried, try putting those
concerns aside by
writing them down
and telling yourself

one
Sleeping poorly for
cups) and then rested they can always wait
without sleeping for until tomorrow. Above
15 minutes still reaped
benefits.
Physical activity—
month
or longer is considered
all, don’t stress about
the previous night,
which won’t cause any
even just taking a brisk chronic insomnia and long-term problems—
walk—could also give may require cognitive unless you let it propel
you an energy boost. behavioral therapy or you into a vicious
If you’re engaging in other treatments. cycle of sleeplessness
more active exercise, caused by anxiety over
however, do it at least sleeplessness. Instead,
three hours prior to bedtime so your lie down, close your eyes and allow
body has a chance to cool down your mind to wander. A night or two
before your next attempt at getting of superior slumber will have you
some shut-eye. back to normal in no time.

TEST YOUR MEDICAL IQ

Paresthesia is… Answer: B. Also known as “pins and

A. temporary paralysis.
B. a tingling sensation in a limb.
C. when different bodily senses
conflate in the mind.
D. an addiction to plastic surgery.
needles,” paresthesia is a tingling,
pricking or numb sensation that usually
arises in the arms, legs, hands or feet.
Most people get occasional, temporary
paresthesia from accidentally applying
too much pressure to a nerve. Long-
lasting paresthesia could be a sign of
many different underlying conditions,
including multiple sclerosis, carpal
tunnel syndrome, diabetes or sciatica.

11›2017 | 15
 NEWS FROM THE
World of Medicine
BY SAMANTHA RIDEOUT
One Third of Dementia Is
Preventable
A commission of experts assembled
by the medical journal The Lancet
has concluded that around 35
percent of dementia cases are linked
to nine modifiable risk factors,
namely: a low education level,
physical inactivity, high blood
pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity,
smoking, depression, social isolation
and midlife hearing loss (which can
increase social isolation). These
factors reveal how to cut down on
risk; for example, by treating depres-
sion or staying socially active. How-
ever, 65 percent of the risk involves
uncontrollable causes, such as aging
and genetics.
Working Long
Hours May Hike
AFib Risk
A review of eight stud-
ies from across Europe
found that people who
regularly work more
than 55 hours per week
are 40 percent more likely
to develop atrial fibrillation
over 10 years compared to
16 | 11›2017
people who work up to 40 hours.
AFib, a type of irregular heart
rhythm, can sometimes lead to
stroke. It wasn’t clear whether the as-
sociation could be explained by
work-related stress, lifestyle factors,
both or neither; subjects who worked
more hours may have been more
prone to unhealthy habits such as a
lack of exercise and overconsump-
tion of alcohol.
Diabetes Meds Can Combat
Osteoporosis
It’s not uncommon to have both type
2 diabetes and osteoporosis, given
that diabetes affects bone metabo-
lism—as do some of the medications
that treat it. A team from the U.K.
LEVI BROWN ; (PROP STYLI ST) P HILLIP S HUBIN
and Greece looked into the
best pharmaceutical op-
tions for people with
both conditions.
They recommended
metformin, sulfonyl-
ureas, DPP-4 inhibi-
tors and GLP-1
receptor agonists be-
cause these drugs bene-
fit bones at the same time
as they control diabetes.

Medical
Mystery
BY SYDNE Y LONE Y
THE PATIENTS: Katie*, 26, and Ella*,
24, of Boston, United States
THE SYMPTOMS: Late-onset speech
and motor-skill delay
THE DOCTOR: Dr. David Sweetser,
PAPER ARTWORK BY KYLE BEAN; PHOTOGRAPHY BY MITCH PAYNE
chief of medical genetics and metab-
olism at the Mass General Hospital
for Children
WHEN KATIE WAS BORN in 1988,
everything seemed fine. Her mother,
Laura, worried that Katie’s baby babble
and motor skills weren’t as advanced at
seven months as those of some of her
friends’ kids, but the pediatrician reas-
sured her. It wasn’t until Laura was
pregnant with her second daughter,
Ella, that it became clear that some-
thing was amiss.
Although bright and happy at one
*Names changed to protect patient
privacy
HEALTH
and a half, Katie still hadn’t taken her
first steps and only said a few words:
“Mama,” “Dada,” “dolly,” “bubbles.”
The family’s lives became a blur of
trips to various therapists. Laura had
undergone an amniocentesis in her
first pregnancy, but nothing unusual
had surfaced; Ella was subjected
to precise tests in utero to look for
chromosomal abnormalities. The
results were normal.
Ella’s first 12 months were unevent-
ful, but then she, too, showed signs of
developmental delay. As time passed,
the gap between the girls’ ages and
abilities continued to widen. They
were referred to an autism specialist,
who diagnosed them with an atypical
variant; their social interactions and
sustained eye contact set them apart
from the standard presentation of the
disorder.
Laura quit her job as a professor to
11›2017 | 17
READER’S DIGEST

devote her time to caring for her system development. This glitch
daughters—and finding a definitive causes Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a
diagnosis. disorder discovered in 2007 that’s
At age six, Katie’s speech began to only been identified in about 350
deteriorate. She lost interest in play people worldwide.
and withdrew. Laura was terrified. At last, the family’s quest for an
To her relief, Katie’s condition answer was over. A Pitt-Hopkins
stabilized within a year. But over the diagnosis often comes as a relief,
next decade, developmental pediatri- says Sweetser, because it’s typically
cians and six geneticists a random genetic muta-
were consulted. Every tion that’s unique to
few months, the girls un- the child and not de-
derwent different exams. The clinic has tected in the parents.
Their blood and urine created a (Because Katie and
were analyzed; they had community for Ella share an identical
muscle and skin biopsies those who spent mutation, one parent
and were tested for a also carries the gene in
host of conditions. years seeking a small subset of egg or
The results were all answers. sperm cells.)
negative. The girls strug- The best news?
gled with constipation, Pitt-Hopkins isn’t
urinary tract infections and insomnia. progressive. Katie and Ella—now
Katie would periodically hyperventi- in their mid-20s—are doing well.
late, while Ella began having seizures Their cognitive age ranges from two
at age 13. Otherwise, their symptoms to five years, depending on the skill
were fairly identical. area. They love music and playing
In April 2011, when the sisters were in the sand on the beach. “They’re
in their early 20s, the family met happy, friendly young women,”
Dr. David Sweetser, the chief geneti- Sweetser says.
cist at the MassGeneral Hospital for After the diagnosis, MGH launched
Children, where the girls were being the world’s first Pitt-Hopkins clinic
treated. “It was daunting to look at to improve patient quality of life and
their medical sheets,” he says. “It was spearhead research that could lead to
a decades-long diagnostic odyssey.” targeted therapies. The clinic has cre-
Sweetser tried a new sequencing ated a community for families who
test that looks at every gene (all have spent years searching for an-
23,000) and discovered a mutation swers. “Just knowing what the defect
in a single one (TCF4) that plays is can lead to better treatment, and
a crucial role in brain and nervous hope for the future,” Sweetser says.

18 | 11›2017
 MY LIFE

Blue-Beret Christmas
Peacekeeper
BY ANNE ROUMANOFF

FAMILY GATHERINGS at Christmas and New Year can be

real powder kegs. A banal little remark can trigger tensions and
degenerate into open warfare. To prevent your family feasts
from becoming battle zones, here’s advice from the UF (United
Families) to turn you into a blue-beret Christmas peacekeeper.
1. Recognize the eight phrases likely to produce fireworks:
No thanks, I’m not hungry anymore—I feel like throwing up.
ANNE
Are you still unemployed? Haven’t you gained a little weight?
ROUMANOFF
is a well- I don’t have the deep pockets you do. Is it true he cheated on
known French you? Exactly how long is it now you’ve been single? You just
humorist. don’t know how to bring up your children. What’s your view
She lives in on the migrants issue?
Paris.
2. Change the subject rapidly by steering the con-
versation out of mine fields and onto safe terrain:
Freezing cold weather, isn’t it? There’s never
anything on television on Christmas Eve! You
must give me your recipe for the turkey. It’s
delicious. How about a selfie?
3. Monitor the alcohol level of the
participants. A little tippling relaxes
the atmosphere, but too much re-
I LLUSTRATIONS : JOE M CKEN DRY (TOP)

leases underlying anger.

4. When a row breaks out, use sub-
terfuge to physically remove one of the
CHLOÉ PERARN AU (BOTTOM )

antagonists by saying, for example, “Would you

show me the work you’ve had done in the garage?”
5. Remind everyone regularly why they’re here.
“Calm down, it’s Christmas.”
If you feel irritation getting the better of you, breathe deeply
and remind yourself that you won’t see most of the combatants
for another 364 days.

11›2017 | 19
 Good News
SOME OF THE POSITIVE STORIES COMING OUR WAY
BY TIM HULSE

A fruitful enterprise Santonocito

BUSINESS Back in 2011, and Arena
Adriana Santonocito was a (far right)
design student in Milan,
working on her dissertation,
when she began to wonder
whether a fabric could be
made from citrus by-products
that would otherwise be
thrown away.
Santonocito comes from
Sicily, a place famous for its
oranges, so the idea was of
particular interest to her. What if the In 2014 she founded her own
rinds of the hundreds of thousands company, Orange Fiber, together
of tons of oranges used for juice— with her colleague and fellow Sicilian

ORANGEF IBER.IT; HOTS POT M EDIA/HA RVEY HOOK (RIGHT)

normally just a waste product—could Enrica Arena, and they’ve now begun
somehow be used to make clothes? selling their silk-like material to
She set about finding the answer clothes-makers. Rosario Faraci, a
in the laboratory, and discovered business professor at the University
that the cellulose in orange rinds of Catania, says the company is a
could be turned into yarn, which shining example of how “creativity
could then be dyed and blended with and entrepreneurial spirit” is creating
other textiles. new jobs and businesses in Sicily.

“What a pleasure to see a child able to choose, and to

give him what he wants. Thank you, world.”
Fa c eb o ok p o st b y t h e Ageop Ricerca a ss o c i ati o n i n B o l o g n a , aft er an app e al f or L e g o f or
c hi l dren i n t h e S ant ’O rs ol a Ho spi t al re su l t e d i n do n ati o n s o f 5 0 0 b ox e s o f th e t o y b r ic k s.

20 | 12›2017
 Star footballer’s charity move
SPORT Professional footballers are
known for their often huge wages,
but not so much for their charitable
endeavors. But Manchester United’s
Spanish player, Juan Mata, is hoping
to change all that.
He has committed to donating
1 per cent of his salary to a collective
fund called Common Goal, a group
of 120 charities in 80 countries run
Sources: Business, BBC News, 23.8.17. Sport, The Guardian, 17.8.17. Society, Good News Network, 21.8.17. Heroes, The Sun, 21.8.17
says, “As soon as I heard of Common
Goal, I knew this was a chance for
football to improve our world, and I
wanted to be part of it.”
Bringing books to refugees
SOCIETY A minivan carrying a
library of more than a thousand
books now tours Athens thanks to a
new initiative that aims to alleviate
the boredom and creeping despair

by Streetfootballworld. “Football of refugees waiting to be relocated

generates a lot of money, but there
has to be a social responsibility that
goes with that,” says Mata.
Mata hopes other players and
administrators will join in. The first
to get on board was Mats Hummels,
the Bayern Munich defender, who
elsewhere in Europe. The goal is to
“make culture accessible to all”,
according to Esther ten Zijthoff, the
Dutch-American coordinator of the
project. The most popular books are
dictionaries and the detective novels
of Agatha Christie.

HEROES: SOLDIER SELLS MEDALS TO HELP SICK CHILD

FORMER SOLDIER Matthew Goodman, who served with the

British army in the 2003 Iraq War, was moved to take action
when he read about a small child’s struggle with cancer.
Despite never having met Lottie Woods-John (pictured
below), the ex-Royal Marine put his three service medals up
for sale to help fund her treatment.
“I couldn’t imagine seeing my own baby
daughter suffering like that,” he says. “My
medals were sitting in the drawer, and I thought
they could be used for something worthwhile.” The
proceeds will go towards the £200,000 needed to
send Lottie to the US to be given a new vaccine.
“When Matt contacted me, I was speechless,” says Lottie’s
mother, Charlotte. “He risked his life for those medals and the
fact he’s not even met Lottie, but wants to help, is mind-blowing.”

12›2017 | 21
FINISH THIS SENTENCE

The most beautiful place

I ever visited, was...
… Flor
and Fjaere
at Hidle, outside
Stavanger.
ELSE RAGNi
Norway

… I still
hope to
find.
LIEVEN VERHASSEL
Belgium

… your … the place

… Paris, neck. I dreamt
JOSÉ MARIA CADENAS

about
with my husband. Spain
MARTA CALDAS
Portugal
last night.
BRUNO DENIS
Fra n c e

22 | 12›2017
 … close by,
if you look at it
the right way. … my friend’s
TARJA KOSKI-VÄHÄLA
Fi n l a n d
heart.
He’s an idiot,
but his heart is golden.
WAN NUR ALIFAH ILYANA
Ma l a y s i a

… my
hometown,
where I had a happy
childhood.
REINHARD
G e r m a ny

… filled
with
tourists.
AHMAD HASSAN

… my bed Singapore

after a heavy
night shift.
HELMA VAN VUGT
t h e Ne t h e r l a n d s

… my grand-
daughter’s
imagination.
JEFF NORTHEY
Au s t ra l i a

12›2017 | 23
 As Kids See It
“I was hoping for something more Instagrammable.”
I’M CURRENTLY WORKING on
potty training my three-year-old
granddaughter, Lilja. The other day
she walked into the bathroom while
I was sitting on the toilet, clapped
her hands to her cheeks and excit-
edly exclaimed, “Grandma, you
potty trained. I so proud!”
BARB KUNTSI
24 | 12›2017
MY DAUGHTER DECIDED to strip na-
ked, diaper and all, in the grocery
SUSAN CAM ILLERI KON AR
store when I had my back turned for
about five seconds. I only became
aware when a lovely lady tapped me
on my shoulder and whispered into
my ear, “Excuse me, love, your child is
dancing naked beside the potatoes.”
cosmopolitan.com
THE HMCS CALGARY had been
on deployment in the Red Sea for
several months when we made a
port stop in Dubai. The weapons
officer gathered all the spare
change he could find to use the
pay phone on the jetty. When it
was finally his turn to make a call
he fed his money into the machine
and dialed home. His seven-year-
old son answered and said, “Hi
Dad, where are you?” He replied,
“Dubai.”
“Okay,” said his son, then hung up.
DOUG SCATTERGOOD
WHENEVER I TRAVEL with my
young children, I’m always reminded
of an important lesson: Never travel
with my young children.
@JIMGAFFIGAN
MY TWO GREAT-NIECES, Mia, four,
and Estelle, two, were drawing at
the kitchen table when Estelle held
up a page of scribbles for her sister
to observe.
“Look at my pirate ship!” she
exclaimed, to which Mia replied,
“Well, you certainly used your
imagination.”
Estelle paused for a moment
before shooting back, “No! I used
my crayons.” JO-ANNA D’ERMO
MY FIRST-GRADER was learning
about mammals. When I asked her,
“Are you a mammal?” she said no, so
I told her to look at her arm and see
if there were any hairs on it.
She replied, “Whoa! I am a mam-
mal. And Papa is REALLY a mammal!”
buzzfeed.com
TALKING TO MY SON:
ME: I think your shoes are on the
wrong feet.
HIM: I don’t have any other feet!
reddit.com
MY SIX-YEAR-OLD GRANDSON,
Harlow, could hardly contain his
excitement when he came over for a
recent family dinner.
HARLOW: Grandpa, Grandpa! If I
guess where you got your shoes, can
I have five dollars?
ME: Okay, but I got these before you
were born!
He studied my loafers for a mo-
ment then looked up at me with a
devilish smile.
HARLOW: You got them on your feet!
STEPHEN STRANSMAN
I MISS THE DAYS when my youngest
was afraid of skeletons and cried
when I told her she had a skeleton
inside of her. @KELLYOXFORD
NOT IMPRESSED
ME: “I brought some books for us
to read”
4-YEAR-OLD BOY I BABYSIT:
*suspicious*: “Let me see.”
ME: *Lays out books*
4 YEAR OLD: “…well that’s disap-
pointing” CHELSEA LARSON
12›2017 | 25
Changing your thought process can free you
from feelings of guilt, shame and sorrow

No More
Regrets BY LISA FIELDS

26 | 12›2017
PHOTO: © SHUTTERSTOCK
G
READER’S DIGEST

rowing up in southern Germany, Karin Schätzle longed to

play the cello, but no one in her small village could teach
her. Instead, she learned the recorder and clarinet, and
she continued to daydream into adulthood about
becoming a cellist. She never sought lessons, though, convinced that
she would have needed to learn during childhood to be any good.
Nothing can pervade your thoughts or ings aren’t always harmful. Research
inspire sleepless nights like the feeling shows that initially, regrets help you
of regret. Maybe you blame yourself for learn from mistakes.
ending an old romantic relationship, “Those who express regret over a de-
for making a bad career choice or for cision they have made tend to make a
being too afraid to step outside your better decision next time,” says Aidan
comfort zone, like Schätzle. Feeney, a psychology senior lecturer at
“What shows up time and time again Queen’s University Belfast, who stud-
in a pattern of people’s regrets is that ies the effects of regrets and shame on
later in life, people tend to think about decision-making.
the things they didn’t do rather than By analyzing your situation, you can
the things that they did,” says Tom learn lessons about yourself, make
Gilovich, a psychology professor at changes going forward and hopefully
Cornell University in New York, who create better outcomes next time.
studies the differences between regrets This technique worked for Schät-
of action and inaction. “There are so zle when she had a fresh realization
many things we didn’t do because we about the cello in her 40s: She might
were socially afraid.” have needed to play in her youth if she
hoped to play professionally, but that
That Good-for-you wasn’t her goal. Immediately, she be-
PHOTOILLUSTRATI ONS BY MAGGIE LAROUX
Bad Feeling gan cello lessons.
Regrets have a tendency to make you “I wish I had not waited that long,
feel terrible, but those negative feel- because I love it,” says Schätzle, 52, of

OLDER ADULTS WHO LET REGRETS

OVERPOWER THEM CAN DEVELOP MENTAL
AND PHYSICAL AILMENTS.

28 | 12›2017
 Stuttgart, Germany. “For a while, I was
almost angry with myself, thinking if
only I had started earlier, I would now
be able to play more difficult pieces—
until I realized that, for me, that is not
what the cello is about. It´s about the
enjoyment I get out of practicing.”
The Harm of Overthinking
What if regrets dominate your
thoughts and you don’t (or can’t) take
action to resolve them within a rea-
sonable time frame? Unfortunately,
these repetitive thoughts may nega-
tively impact your life.
“Regret can be a very destructive
emotion,” Feeney says. “If you rumi-
nate on countless possibilities that
once were possible but are no longer
possible, that can be very damaging.”
Picture, for example, a retired
woman who wishes that
she’d had children instead
of just focusing on her ca-
reer. Such an outcome can’t
be changed; the regrets
may become unbearable.
Older adults who let re-
grets overpower them can
develop mental and physi-
cal ailments.
ALL PHOTOS © SHUTTERSTOCK
regrets across the adult life span. “Dis-
eases such as heart disease may more
likely be observed. Not immediately,
but after 5, 10, 20 years.”
Rising Above Regrets
Several strategies can help people dis-
entangle themselves from the power-
ful grips of their regrets.
“One of the primary functions of re-
gret is to correct one’s mistakes,” says
Marcel Zeelenberg, social psychology
professor at Tilburg University in the
Netherlands, whose research focuses
on the impact of regrets on decision-
making. “Another function is to make
sure that we remember our mistakes
and learn from them. For both of
these functions, it is important that
regret is painful. Otherwise, it would
not motivate.”

“We have shown that re-

grets are a stronger predic-
tive for depression in older
than younger people,” says
Carsten Wrosch, psychol-
ogy professor at Concor-
dia University in Montréal,
who studies the impact of

12›2017 | 29
READER’S DIGEST
Try these tactics:
n Stop judging the past. At 13,
Paola Tosca was a typical adolescent,
more interested in socializing with her
peers than her parents. When her fa-
ther died suddenly of a heart attack,
Tosca immediately regretted how
she’d chosen to spend her time.
“Not having enough time to know
my father Stefano is my deepest and
greatest regret,” says Tosca, now 62,
from Grasse, France. “I realized I
hadn’t devoted enough time to him.”
When people think about old de-
cisions, they may mistakenly believe
that they made the wrong choice,
which can worsen feelings of regret.
“We often don’t give ourselves
credit for making the best decision,”
says Wändi Bruine de Bruin, profes-
sor of behavioral decision-making
at Leeds University Business School,
30 | 12›2017
who studies the effects of regrets on
mental health. “You may now have
different information than you had
back then. If people want to use the
regret productively, say, ‘Given what
I knew at the time, would I have done
anything different, and what would it
have been?’”
To deal with her father’s loss over
the decades, Tosca, the CEO of a com-
puter company in Grasse and an au-
thor, has pushed herself to work hard
and live her life to the fullest, so that
he would have been proud.
“I built my life on his absence,” she
says. “My desire to live intensely, to suc-
ceed in my life was born when he died.”
n Embrace inaction. In her youth,
Olivia Wolferstan of London said
something to her grandmother that she
wishes she could take back.
“One year, she made several coffee
cakes, and I took it upon my-
self to tell her that my family
and I were a little bored of cof-
fee cake, and could she perhaps
make another flavor,” says Wolf-
erstan, 28. “She visibly deflated
at my words. She never made a
coffee cake again.”
As you age, you’re likely to
have less power to change cir-
cumstances that you regret. Ac-
cepting this powerlessness may
help you cope.
“People have to settle with
what they did or didn’t do,
because there may not be so
many opportunities to turn
it around anymore,” Wrosch
says. “We have shown—with
respect to regret—if they can
disengage from undoing the
regret, they don’t experience
the consequences. Engage in
other meaningful activities in
life. That can work as an over-
ride mechanism.”
n Seek inner wisdom. By
the time you’re 60, you’ll have
tallied significantly more regrets
than you had at 20, but they
don’t all have the same impact.
“The regrets that really get to
people are unresolved regrets,
things they could never fix,” Bru-
ine de Bruin says. “If you feel like you what is happening,” Bjälkebring says.
should have gone to college or should “Over a week, older adults have less re-
go back, you can fix that when you’re gret and use strategies to handle them.
relatively young. That can be harder to They’re more functional.”
do when you’re older.” Other research shows that older peo-
Fortunately, many older adults are ple are less overwhelmed by regrets.
better equipped to handle their emo- “When you’re younger, you can get
tions. caught up, and the concrete details
“They have the wisdom that comes are shameful,” Gilovich says. “When
with life experience,” says Pär Bjälke- you get older, you think of it from a
bring, psychology senior lecturer broader perspective: ‘Overall, I’ve
at Gothenburg University in Swe- lived a good life, even though I’ve
den, who studies how regrets influ- made some mistakes.’”
ence decision-making as people age. n Appreciate your situation. Re-
“When they come to a situation when search shows that the most common
a younger person would regret it, they reason for regret is missed opportu-
can handle it.” nities. People tend to fantasize about
For his research, Bjälkebring asked benefits they believe they’ve missed
younger and older adults to record while ignoring disadvantages that
their regrets for a week. would have naturally arisen.
“The older participants look at re- “Missed opportunities are unreal-
grets in a different way, to try to accept ized better worlds,” Zeelenberg says.

12›2017 | 31
READER’S DIGEST
“Had one chosen differently, or acted
differently, the outcomes would have
been better.”
Never got that promotion? You
likely think about the missed income
without considering the extra stress
the position would have brought.
For more than 30 years, Maiju
Kauppila of Helsinki, has worked as
a state employee, although her real
passion has been social media and
marketing: She has parlayed her en-
thusiasm for handicrafts and lifestyle
blogging into a successful online pres-
ence for the past 12 years.
“The blog and all of my social me-
dia channels have become almost like
a second job for me,” says Kauppila,
54, “yet I have not dared to abandon
my career, even though I know I could
certainly have another career.”
Instead of imagining an alternate
32 | 12›2017
reality, focus on the good in
your life.
“Avoid making compari-
sons,” Bruine de Bruin says.
“Don’t keep asking yourself
would you be happier with
another wife, another house,
another job. It undermines
the happiness you have. If you
do make comparisons, look at
what makes you lucky, rather
than unlucky. Try to rejoice
instead of regret.”
n Employ optimistic think-
ing. Gilovich’s research has
found that you can diminish
regret’s power if you can find
something positive that materialized
because of the regretted situation.
“Rationalize it; identify the silver lin-
ings,” Gilovich says. “’I shouldn’t have
married this person. That was a mis-
take. But at least I have these great kids,
which I wouldn’t have had otherwise.’”
Joann Perahia, 62, of New York,
regrets that she didn’t save more
money when she was younger, but
her silver lining makes her situation
more tolerable.
“Now there is no time to get the un-
earned money back,” she says. “How-
ever, I did raise my children without
working, and they are wonderful. If I
had gone to work to make that money,
I don’t think they’d be as wonderful as
they are.”
n Lead an active life. People tend
to regret inaction more than their ac-
tions, so researchers suggest that you
may have fewer regrets if you act more
and avoid things less.
“If you’re trying to decide should
you do this or not and all the reasons
are: ‘What would other people think?,’
you should do it,’” Gilovich says.
Rudolf Thode, 62, of Offenbüttel,
Germany, dreamed of flying since he
was a boy. But instead of training to
be a pilot, he became a busy farmer
with a wife who wasn’t supportive of
his fantasy. Nevertheless, he found
himself drawn to the nearby airfield
in Rendsburg whenever he had free
time. About 13 years ago, a flight in-
structor approached Thode at the
edge of the airfield, and the farmer
finally decided to take flying lessons.
“What a great feeling to view my
farmland from high above,” Thode
says. “It would have been a lot better if
I had followed through with my dream
when I was in my mid-20s. What re-
ally counts, however, is the fact that it
came true at all.”
Regrets of inaction aren’t out of
reach if you give yourself permission.
“You can forestall future regrets,”
Gilovich says. “It’s not uncommon for
retired people to say, ‘You know what?
I always wanted to learn a foreign lan-
guage or play a musical instrument,
but I can’t do it at this age.’ You’re not
going to be Yo-Yo Ma, but there is
some great satisfaction to taking com-
mand of a regret. Go for it.”

WHY MEN DON’T WRITE ADVICE COLUMNS

Dear Eddie, The other day I set off for work, leaving my husband
in the house watching the TV. I hadn’t gone more than
a mile when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt.
I walked back home, only to find my husband making love
to our neighbor. He was let go from his job six months ago, and he
says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless.
I love him very much, but I don’t know if I can trust him
anymore. What should I do? Sincerely, Frustrated

Dear Frustrated, A car stalling can be caused by a variety of faults

with the engine. Check that there is no debris in the fuel line.
If it’s clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto
the inlet manifold. Or it could be that the fuel pump
itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor
float chamber. I hope this helps.
SUBMITTED BY E.T. THOMPSON

12›2017 | 33
DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

High on a Swiss mountain, the

snowboarder got separated from his
friends. Then a snowstorm blew in.

41 HOURS
ALONE
IN THE
SNOW BY DANIEL J. SCHÜZ
F R O M SONNTAGSZEITUNG

34 | 12›2017
12›2017 | 35
READER’S DIGEST

“HALLOOO!” NICOLAS JUNGE-HÜLSING SHOUTS DOWN

into the valley at the top of his voice. “Daaniii! Where are you?”
“Niiciiii!” Daniel Petek bellows up at the mountain until he’s
practically hoarse. “We’re over here!”
It may seem as if they are answering each other, but each is
completely oblivious to the other’s calls, thanks to a hefty downdraft
blowing violently through the Urseren valley and whipping up snow
on the flank of the Gemsstock. The sudden gale drowns out every
tone, completely hiding every shape behind an opaque white veil.
The tracks in the snow are first obscured by the winds, then
completely erased seconds later.

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016, had gotten
off to a good start, with beautiful
spring sunshine and perfect, pow-
dery snow. The winter sports en-
thusiasts from Radolfzell Ski Club in
Germany were making the most of
the glorious weather at the Ander-
izes that his board is long overdue
for a good waxing—it keeps sticking,
and in the end he has to get off and
trudge through the deep snow while
the skiers glide across the slope with
ease.
But where are Dani and the oth-

PHOTO, P REVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY NI COLAS JUNGE-H ÜLSI NG

matt ski resort in Switzerland.
At around four in the afternoon, ski
instructor Daniel Petek returned to
the summit with ten members of the
group so that they could ski the pop-
ular Guspis freeride—ten kilometers
off-piste to Hospental—one last time.
Nici is new to the group, and at
age 18 he is its youngest member. He
is also the only snowboarder in the
party. But that isn’t to say he’s inex-
perienced—his grandfather started
taking him on trips to the Valais Alps
at age 11. “Winter sports are my life”,
says the biochemistry student. “Both
skiing and snowboarding!”
During a lengthy traverse, he real-
ers now? They could have carried on
straight down, but then again they
might have turned off over there on
the left.
Nicolas’s father Bernhard Junge-
Hülsing—a doctor by profession—
should have been with the group
too. But he was still suffering from a
stubborn bout of the flu and had told
his son, “You go without me. I don’t
feel up to it.”
Suddenly all alone in the moun-
tains at an altitude of nearly 2,300
meters, Nicolas is miserable and for-
lorn. His fingers numb with cold, he
fumbles his phone out of his pocket
to call his dad. His battery is running

36 | 12›2017
 Hospental
1452 m
Gurschen

n
re
se Gemsstock
Ur 2961 m
Castelhorn
2973 m
Gu
sp
is
Shepherd’s
hut

In good weather, the 10km Guspis

freeride is suitable for freeride
beginners. At right, Nicolas Junge-
Hülsing with his snowboard

low and there’s virtually no signal. He

gets cut off almost as soon as he hits
the call button.

BACK AT THE RESORT, Junge-Hüls-

ing’s smartphone vibrates. It’s Dani
Petek, who tells him, “We’ve lost Nici.”
Just after 4:30 p.m. Junge-Hülsing
raises the alarm.

SAFE, FOR NOW

Nicolas gazes across the featureless
PHOTOGRAP HED (PORTRAI T) BY SI MON KOY

expanse of white. He sees nothing but
snow, rocks and boulders—until sud-
denly, the outline of something dark
and square catches his eye.
He makes his way to it and discov-
ers a tiny shelter, more wooden shack
than hunter’s cabin, a shepherd’s hut
with a stable-style door. It’s locked, but
after a few bashes with Nici’s snow-
board, the lock gives way.
There’s a bunk bed against the wall.
On top of the mattress lie a blanket,
a shirt and a fleece jacket. There’s
also a candle, a saucepan, a camp-
ing stove, three dirty plastic bottles,
a large packet of spaghetti, a jar of
tomato sauce, some stock cubes and
a cigarette lighter, and a can of blue
spray paint.
Nicolas breathes a sigh of relief. I’m
safe, for now; I can spend the night
here. In the morning, I’ll climb up to
the cable car station on the summit. I
should be able to do it in seven hours

12›2017 | 37
READER’S DIGEST
if the conditions are OK.
But he knows that snow is forecast
from Saturday to Wednesday.
SNOW IN THE FORECAST
Dusk is starting to fall over the moun-
tains as Markus Koch sets a course for
the base of the Swiss Air-Rescue ser-
vice known as “Rega.” The helicopter
pilot and his crew have just flown an
NICOLAS HOLDS THE
LIGHTER TO THE WICK
OF THE CANDLE AND
REPEATEDLY SPARKS
IT WHILE SPRAYING
BLUE PAINT AT IT.
injured skier to the Spital Schwyz hos-
pital and are now looking forward to
an evening off.
Then the radio crackles. “Come in
Rega 8.” “Rega 8 here, what have we
got?” “We need you to search for a miss-
ing snowboarder on the Gemsstock,
somewhere along the Guspis route.”
The pilot alters his course to 195 de-
grees and climbs to 2,740 meters; he
can’t fly any lower because the föhn
wind is raging through the Urseren
valley at nearly 100 kilometers an hour.
S OMEWHERE BELOW, Nicolas is
growing increasingly desperate: The
lighter is empty and doesn’t work. He
38 | 12›2017
picks up the can of spray paint and
turns it around in his hand. On its
side, he sees the words “Highly flam-
mable, do not spray towards naked
flame.”
This gives him an idea: Nicolas
holds the lighter to the wick of the
candle and repeatedly sparks it while
simultaneously spraying blue paint at
it. It works—the wick catches fire. He
uses the candle to light the camping
stove.
While melts snow in a pot on
the stove, Nicolas hears a muffled
t h u m p - t h u m p - t h u m p ov e r t h e
noise of the wind howling through
the cracks in the hut. A helicopter!
They’re searching for me!
He dashes outside. The chopper is
circling right above him, in exactly
the right place—but why is it flying
so high? And why is it veering away?
Nici guesses that the pilot couldn’t
spot him in the storm.
CHRISTIAN VON DACH is the Gems-
stock cable car technician leading
the search. The Rega operations cen-
ter has called in Swiss Alpine Rescue
(ARS), a non-profit foundation run by
Rega and the Schweizer Alpen-Club.
The race is on to save the young snow-
boarder’s life.
Von Dach has set off with 20 help-
ers to search the lower slopes of the
Gemsstock along the valley, using
searchlights and night-vision equip-
ment.
Meanwhile, Daniel Petek and the
 Pilot Stefan Bucheli, who, with Christian von Dach (inset), rescued the teenager.
rest of his group are still out there,
braving the snowstorm. They have
been standing in the same spot call-
ing out Nici’s name into the gloom for
two-and-a-half hours.
At around seven o’clock, Dani’s
phone rings. It’s Von Dach. He asks
the tourists to go back down into the
valley. “Once it’s dark, it gets a lot
more dangerous—and we don’t want
to have to start searching for more
PHOTO: (LEF T) © REGA
than one person.”
In the meantime, CID officers
from the canton of Uri are checking
the local hostelries in Hospental to
make sure the missing teenager isn’t
sitting in a nice, warm bar somewhere.
FEARING THE WORST
Up in his mountain shelter, Nicolas
has devoured his first portion of spa-
ghetti. Now, he goes out to collect
some snow to melt so he can fill up
the empty bottles with hot water to
help keep him warm. He strips down
to his underpants and lays his clothes
on top of the blanket to conserve his
body heat as efficiently as possible.
Suddenly, he hears the sound of
whirring rotor blades again—it’s music
to his ears. Has the Swiss Air Rescue re-
turned in the middle of the night?
It’s a military helicopter. The lead-
ers of the search operation have
drafted in a Super Puma from the
12›2017 | 39
READER’S DIGEST
Alpnach air base with a thermal im-
aging camera so that they can detect
any signs of life in the snow. But the
camera can’t “see” through the walls
of Nici’s shelter.
At around midnight, they give up
the ground search for the night. The
search team return to headquarters
for a briefing, while back at the youth
hostel the ski club members and Nici’s
father are growing increasingly fearful
for him.
As the night wears on, the chances
After more than 40 hours, Bernhard is
finally able to hug his son again.
40 | 12›2017
of finding Nicolas alive recede by the
hour. More than a few people are
starting to think he must have fallen
into a gully or over a precipice.
While still hoping for a miracle,
Junge-Hülsing also now fears the
worst. “It’s best if you stay at home”,
he tells his wife, Katrin, on the phone.
“There’s nothing you can do to help
here.”
Katrin stays put in Munich and
waits for more news. Eleven-year-old
Josefine, known to everyone as Fini,
sits down beside her. “Nici’s alive,
I know it”, says the youngest of her
three daughters. “I can feel his heart
beating.”
A WHITE HELL OUTSIDE
THE DOOR
When hope fades and fear takes hold,
its all too easy to let loneliness get the
better of you.
Nici lies on the mattress and
switches his phone on for a few sec-
onds so he can comfort himself by
looking at the picture of his mom, dad
PHOTO: COURTESY NICOLAS JUNGE-HÜLSIN G
and three sisters.
And then he does something he
would never normally do: he prays,
speaking the words out loud and
clear: Dear God, I can’t call the people
who are worried about me, but please
let them know that I’m alive and well.
And if any one feels like they’re to
blame, tell them it’s nobody’s fault.
The sound of his own voice con-
vinces him that someone is listening.
Every so often he drifts off to sleep
and all is well with the world. He’s at
home with his friends and family, and
no longer alone. Then he wakes up
and the nightmare begins again.
On Saturday, the storm batters the
walls all day long, while the snow is
now several feet deep. When Nicolas
opens the door, a white hell stretches
out before him.
Climbing to the summit is no lon-
ger an option, much less trying to
make his way down the mountain. If
he starts an avalanche, it could engulf
the people who are attempting to get
up the mountain to rescue him.
SUNDAY MORNING. Back at the Rega
base, Stefan Bucheli looks up at the
sky. Although the cloud is slowly start-
ing to break up, the Gemsstock is still
completely shrouded.
The helicopter pilot doesn’t want
to waste a single moment. He starts
up the turbine and takes off. He picks
up Von Dach at the cable car halfway
station.
The clouds force the pilot to make a
detour: Bucheli has to fly around the
Saint-Gotthard Massif and approach
the location where the snowboarder
FROM SONNTAGSZEITUNG (MARCH 13, 2016), COPYRIGHT © TAMEDIA AG, TAMEDIA.CH
was last seen from the Oberalp Pass.
“Down there,” shouts Von Dach and
points through a gap in the clouds.
“There’s someone there!” Now the
pilot, too, can see a figure waving his
arms around wildly outside a wooden
hut.
Then they both see three man-sized
blue letters sprayed onto the snow:
SOS!
“It’s him!”
A SOBBING NICOLAS collapses into
the search party leader’s arms. “It’s
all OK now”, says Von Dach, reassur-
ing the rescued teenager. “You did all
the right things!”
Some time later, father and son are
standing outside the door of farmer
Remo Christen’s home in Hospental.
“Your hut saved my life,” says Nicolas.
“I just wanted to say thank you and
sorry for breaking the lock.”
His father takes out his wallet. “We
will of course pay for the damage.”
The gruff sheep farmer says he’ll be
sure to send them the bill.
“What about the spaghetti and to-
mato sauce?”
“That’s on the house!”

LUNGING ON A JET PLANE

From a Flight Center advertisement in the Daily Express:

“Amsterdam city break, from £135. Includes fights with British Airways.”
G. WHITE, HASTINGS, EAST SUSSEX

12›2017 | 41
Making Yogurt,

42 | 12›2017
Healing Minds
How a psychologist turned entrepreneur—
and helped turn around lives
BY G I L E S T R E M L E T T F R O M T H E O B S E RV E R
P H OTO G R A P H E D BY PAO L A D E G R E N E T

Workers in
the La Fageda
dairy in
Catalonia,
Spain.

12›2017 | 43
I
READER’S DIGEST

n 1984 a disillusioned Spanish psychologist named Cristóbal

Colón drove his Citroën 2CV through a high-canopied Catalan
forest called La Fageda d’en Jordà. Colón had walked through
this airy, enchanted forest with his Bouvier des Flandres dogs
many times, but now he was on his way to buy a farm. The bearded,
earnest 34-year-old had embraced the ideas of both Marx and
Freud during the heady years of Spain’s transition to democracy
in the 1970s. But he was shattered by his experiences in Spain’s
mental asylums, where the misfits of be doing things to occupy their time.
society were parked by a country that Instead, he believed they could be an
believed giving them bed and board effective part of the local economy,
was the limit of its responsibility. and that this would allow them to be
“Some were mentally ill, but others valued as contributing members of
were simply those who society had society. “I wanted them to recover
deemed strange,” he says. their dignity and their freedom. The
Colón, whose name translates into asylum took that away. When people
English as Christopher Columbus, was reach into their pockets to buy some-
living in the nearby town of Olot and thing, they are automatically giving
had an unlikely idea. He’d decided value to the work that has gone into
that the patients in the local asylum making it.”
in Girona needed jobs. He no longer Since nobody was going to hire his
believed that people who did not fit sometimes fragile, often eccentric
into society should be defined by the band of workers, Colón realized he

“I wanted the patients to recover

their dignity and their freedom.
The asylum took that away.”

2,500 mental illnesses catalogued by would need to become a businessman

psychiatrists. “The one thing they
have in common is the idea that we
are what our brain is. But we are much
more than that,” says Colón.
Nor did he want patients simply to
himself. He had been an apprentice
tailor at the age of 14 (before turn-
ing to psychology) and was a practi-
cal man, but he had no expertise in
entrepreneurship. He also wanted

44 | 12›2017
 a project like that, some
people thought that I was
the madman.”
His special workers’
cooperative, which he
named La Fageda, after
the forest, began by provid-
ing manual labor from
its base at an old convent
building shared with the
fire brigade. But Colón
wanted a farm. “I wanted
us to produce something of
value, not to provide cheap
labor to others.”
When the Els Casals
farm came up for sale—its
farmhouse crumbling after
years of neglect, but with
space for a small dairy
herd—he saw fate at work.
Cristóbal Colón: “People thought I was a madman.” The place sits in dramati-
cally beautiful surround-
his company to be based in a place ings right beside the forest. Colón
of great natural beauty. “I knew that sweet-talked local banks into lending
would be good for me,” he says. “So him part of the 90,000 euros needed
why wouldn’t it be good for others?” to buy it. But could this company,
The Garrotxa region, deep in the owned by a workforce deemed to be
heartland of Catalonia, seemed ideal. mentally ill, compete in the raw world
His work in Girona meant he already of 20th-century capitalism? Many
had contacts and potential workers suspected not.
in the area. Some locals, however,
wondered whether he himself had M O R E T H A N 3 0 Y E A R S L AT E R
escaped from an asylum. Colón is running a business with
“I told people that my name was 256 employees and annual sales of
Christopher Columbus, that I came 16m euros. La Fageda, which makes
from the asylum and wanted to set up high-quality yogurts, jams and ice
a business in the middle of the coun- cream, has been studied at business
tryside,” he says. “With a name and schools as far away as Harvard. More

12›2017 | 45
READER’S DIGEST
importantly, it fulfills its aim of giving
employment to almost the entire
population of work-capable mentally
ill people in La Garrotxa.
There have been many ups and
downs. Attempts to set up as a
carpentry workshop, paint shop and
a compost supplier all failed dramati-
It soon became obvious that the
project radically improved the
lives of its worker-owners.
cally. A successful milk business was
ruined by entry into the EU—with its
milk lakes and enforced quotas. That
forced La Fageda to turn the milk
provided by 350 Friesian cows into
yogurt. The farm’s forestry nursery,
one of the biggest of its kind in Spain,
ran out of work after the country’s
economy nosedived in 2008.
Fortunately, by that point La Fage-
da’s brand was successful enough
for it to add jam-making to its activi-
ties. “We made many mistakes,” says
Colón. “But we know there are many
things we don’t know—so we ask
people. And that is our strength.”
La Fageda ran on enthusiasm for
many years, its staff and workers
giving up weekends to tour towns with
cuddly calves and samples of their
yogurts. Those in charge sometimes
found themselves working late into
the night to fulfill orders on time.
46 | 12›2017
Finally the creamy, full-fat yogurts
made from La Fageda’s own milk
became a success. Fifteen years
ago Colón began to hire a profes-
sional management team, though he
remained the boss—his voice carrying
the day at cooperativists’ assemblies
where only some understood what
was being said and everyone was
happy to follow his lead.
IT SOON BECAME OBVIOUS THAT THE
La Fageda project radically improved
the lives of its worker-owners. People
who had repeatedly tried to kill them-
selves no longer did so. Those who
took a monthly salary home found
they were no longer a family burden.
For others, La Fageda’s residential
units in Olot also provided a solution
to their needs outside work.
María Portas was one of the first
who made the journey through La
Fageda’s woods with Colón in the
mid-1980s. The only daughter of a
poor peasant family, she had been
left looking after her elderly mother
before having a breakdown, being
diagnosed with paranoid schizophre-
nia and sent to the asylum.
As a young girl she was, as she puts
it, “tricked by a young man” and, as
a single mother, joined a category of
social outcasts in Franco’s Spain. The
baby boy, however, was beautiful and
she stopped her parents from hand-
ing him over for adoption. “He was
so lovely,” she says. “Having a child is
the best thing that can happen to you.”
But little Miquel died of cancer, aged
just four. Maria never fully recovered.
Now aged 77, she still comes to
the farm every day, to a pensioners’
club that is part of La Fageda’s social
support services. “I feel secure here,”
she explains. She is happiest in the
Margarita Martínez with her son Luis, one of the workers at La Fageda.
forestry nursery and is proud of what
they have achieved. Work remains
important, though there is little for
her to do. “It is something we find
with the older people,” says one of the
care workers, Violete Bulbena. “They
really, really want to work. Some of the
younger generation are not so keen.”
AMONG THE MORE REMARKABLE
stories is that of 57-year-old Luis
Martínez, whose mother Margarita
heard about La Fageda from her home
city of Mendoza, Argentina. Luis had
been diagnosed with schizophrenia. “I
12›2017 | 47
READER’S DIGEST
just think he is different, with a differ-
ent way of looking at the world,” says
Margarita, now aged 88.
Nine years ago she decided they
should emigrate to Spain—where
her parents came from—and rented
an apartment in Olot. One day she
appeared at La Fageda in a taxi with
“Our visitors are the best marketing
we have. People leave not just
liking the yogurt but as apostles.”
Luis. “Now I see that he is happy,” she
explains. “He likes to work. When you
see him so joyful with his compañeros
you realize that these people have an
angel inside.”
LA FAGEDA IS DIVIDED INTO THREE
categories: the clients who come to
the occupational therapy facilities, the
workers and the so-called “profession-
als”. The latter are mostly management,
therapists and care workers. “We like
to say there are people here who have
certificates saying they have a degree
of disability and there are others of us
who don’t yet have them,” says Albert
Riera, who became communications
chief a dozen years ago.
Colón’s daughter Maria, who is one
of La Fageda’s psychologists, says they
do not need doctors on site. An unob-
trusive form of supervision allows
them to tailor tasks to individuals
48 | 12›2017
while keeping an eye on their health.
“We can usually spot when something
is beginning to go wrong and call in
medical help,” she explains.
Just as La Fageda looks after its
people, so it looks after its cows. The
herd is farmed in large open stalls.
Visit and you may find them nibbling
on hay while baroque chamber music
is piped to them from loudspeakers.
This is subtle marketing. La Fageda
has a sponsorship deal with Barce-
lona’s most important concert hall—
the spectacular, modernist Palau de
la Música.
La Fageda has never sold itself as
a social cause. “We want to compete
like any other brand,” says Colón.
“Our message has to be that, even
though we have people with disabili-
ties, we are perfectly capable of doing
things well.” The farm has a visitors’
center that attracts 55,000 people a
year. “That is the best marketing we
have,” says Colón. “People leave not
just liking the yogurt but also—after
seeing the forest, the cows listening
to their music and the workers doing
their jobs—as apostles.”
That means La Fageda has found
the holy grail of marketing by engag-
ing people’s emotions. It also works
for locals. “We’ve helped put Garrotxa
on the map, and the people here now
proudly claim La Fageda as part of
their world.”
LIKE ANY BUSINESS, LA FAGEDA HAS
to take tough decisions and suppliers
have been forced to comply with its
standards. Colón is invited to lecture
at some of the world’s top business
schools, but the company’s objective
remains to provide work for, and look
after, the mentally ill of the Garrotxa
region. Colón is happy for it to remain
a Catalan brand. “We don’t need to
accumulate wealth,” he says. “But the
world of business is a marvelous place
to inhabit and to develop your dignity.”
Colón himself is now 68 and aware
that he cannot keep running the
company much longer. In 2015 it
changed from a workers’ cooperative
to a non-profit foundation. A young
team of executives—mostly women—
has been hired. The aim is to profes-
sionalize the management and the
foundation’s board and prepare for a
handover, as Colón puts it, “before I
die or get Alzheimer’s”.
For people like Luis Martínez, La
Fageda is a guarantee not just of work
but also of future care. For his mother
Margarita, it solved the problem that
most worries every elderly parent of
a dependent child. “He was going to
end up alone when I died, but he is
special and needs someone to guide
him,” she says. Margarita will not be
the first person to die without that
concern hanging over her.
In 2007, local hairdresser Paquita
Casas, whose son Miquel was one of
the early cooperativists, held on in
hospital until he was installed in La
Fageda’s residence. A few days later
she died. “I know you will look after
him,” she had told Colón.
© Guardian News and Media Ltd 2017

DO THE MONSTER MASH

My six-year-old son, Michael, was so afraid of monsters lurking in

his closet that he refused to go to bed. So I devised a plan to
put his mind at ease: I filled a spray bottle with scented water and glued
on a label that read “Creature Repellent.” This worked great … for a week.
“Monsters aren’t real,” I said, frustrated. “They’re imaginary.” “Oh, yeah?”
he shot back. “So how come they sell creature repellent?”

ANNE-MARIE GIONET

12›2017 | 49
 Laughter
THE BEST MEDICINE

“It had better be twins!”

ON HER FIRST DAY of rounds at an “Yes, I am! I was supposed to go

Australian hospital, a visiting Ameri-
can nurse meets an old man packing
up. “I’m going home to die,” he says.
She quickly checks his chart. “Not
according to your chart.”
home yester-die, but instead, I’m
going home to-die!”
DOROTHY SMITH, O v e r l a n d Pa r k , K a n s a s
TWO LOSERS, Tom and Al, are in a
CARTOON BY N AF

“I’m going home to die,” he insists.
“Who told you that?”
“My doctor.”
“Well, it’s not true. You are not
going home to die!”
bar sipping beer when a man orders
ten shots of booze and shouts, “I got
$500 that says no one here can drink
all of these in one minute.”
Tom says, “My buddy will take the

50 | 12›2017
bet!” and pushes Al in front of
the shots. Al stares at all that liquor,
then runs out the door. The man
laughs. “I knew you lightweights
couldn’t do it.” SCHOOL’S STARTING!
Five minutes later, Al returns BUTTER UP YOUR
ENGLISH TEACHER
and slams down all ten shots in WITH THESE GRAMMAR
50 seconds. He grabs the money and JOKES
sits back behind his beer.
“Where’d you go?” asks Tom. n Q: What should you say to
“I wasn’t sure I could drink ten comfort a ruffled grammar
shots in a minute, so I went to the fanatic?
bar next door and tried it first.” A: There, their, they’re.
Source: copytechnet.com
n Did you hear the one about
PUNS MAY BE THE LOWEST form the pregnant woman who went
into labor and started shouting,
of comedy, but if you call them word-
“Couldn’t! Wouldn’t! Shouldn’t!
play, they sound clever. So here are Didn’t! Can’t!”? She was having
clever “wordplays” from the United contractions.
Kingdom Pun Championships:
Me and my buddies at the gun club n Q: Which word becomes
often go to the cheese shop just to shorter after you add two letters
shoot the Bries. to it?
I’ve got a friend who’s obsessed A: Short.
with completing his Beatles collec-
n When I was a kid, my teacher
tion. He needs Help. looked my way and said,
Supposed to be chauffeuring a “Name two pronouns.” I said,
female vicar, but I drove pastor. “Who, me?”
My Roman friend won’t go and see
the film Poison Ivy until he’s been to n Q: What’s the difference
see the films Poison I, Poison II ... between a cat and a comma?
It wasn’t much fun having a A: One has claws at the end
of its paws, and the other is
broken neck, but now I can look
a pause at the end of a
back and laugh. Source: mirror.co.uk
clause.

BEFORE I GOT MARRIED, I didn’t n Never leave alphabet soup

even know there was a wrong way to on the stove and then go out.
put the milk back in the fridge. It could spell disaster. Source: rd.com
@IWEARAONESIE (JOSH)

12›2017 | 51
 Giving a gift unwraps long-lost memories
The
Christmas
Guitar
M
Y SON WAS ABOUT
to turn ten. He still
took my hand from
time to time when
we were out together, but he let it go
when we met other children, espe-
cially girls. On that late afternoon in
winter we had strolled through the
Parisian streets illuminated bright as
day with Christmas lights. Dirty snow
beneath our feet, we came to a halt in
front of the music shop window, his
small hand tucked cosily in mine.
We looked at the guitars gleam-
ing on their stands. Their long necks
decked with tinsel made them look
like ostriches tied up with ribbon
(some people have no respect for
musical instruments or for animals).
These pathetic-looking creatures
were ruled out straightaway; my son
52 | 12›2017
BY JEAN CHAVOT
dreamed of a wild guitar to tame. We
went into the shop.
Years earlier, when he wasn’t even
one year old, we used to sing a few
notes to him each morning to see
whether he was awake. I say “we” but
it was especially his mother, with her
beautiful singer’s voice. He responded
with the same little melody. It became
a game to vary it, make it more intri- ILLUSTRATION BY BODIL JANE/FOLI O ART
cate, and to hear him reproduce it
right away before breaking into his de-
lightful rippling laugh. It was his way
of saying, “Again ! Again !”
When he was older, we asked him
from time to time if he wanted to learn
to play an instrument. As musicians
ourselves, nothing seemed more natu-
ral, especially given—and I say this as
objectively as possible for a parent—
his obvious talent. He consistently re-
READER’S DIGEST

sponded with a clear and definite no. “You want to learn piano?”
When I asked why, he told me that he “No, guitar.”
didn’t want “to end up being forced to “Just like Dad?”
play in front of 300 people.” “No,” he replied, a touch of disdain
He had been to many of his moth- in his voice.
er’s and my performances. I wondered “Why guitar then and not piano?”
whether he had been upset by the “Because I like the physical connec-
shows where we were especially bad, tion with the instrument.”
whether stage fright was contagious, His mother and I looked at each
or whether his hypersensitivity meant other. We weren’t used to hearing that
he’d been put off by see- level of language from
ing us go through it? Or him. He didn’t say any
could it be that scales, more about it that day
singing exercises and With a nod, but we hoped we’d un-
rehearsals were, in his I referred the derstood. I bought him a
mind, just a typical adult salesman to guitar and at his request
occupation—a way of my son. He was we enrolled him at mu-
earning a living? Or did sic school.
he have another good the customer. While he appreciated
reason that it would be classical guitarists Fer-
useless to try to explain nando Sor and Heitor
to someone with the limited under- Villa-Lobos, it was only natural that
standing of a grown-up ? very soon he wanted to play music
Fortunately, he had a little class- closer to his own taste, on a guitar
mate at school who was taking piano that he’d chosen himself, with which
lessons and played “The Pink Panther” he could develop the perfect “physical
divinely. My son immediately learned connection.” It was in pursuit of this
it by heart, having taken notice for ideal instrument that we went into the
the first time of our home piano. For music shop on that Christmas Eve.
many weeks he played the tune in ev- A salesman greeted us as though
ery pitch and every key, with his head he were condescending to attend
down, eyes closed ... to us between a Rolling Stones tour
One day, to our great relief, perhaps and a session with Charlie Parker. He
because he had exhausted all possible addressed his remarks to me alone,
variations, he declared bluntly, “I want as the debit cardholder. With a nod,
to learn to play an instrument.” I referred him to my son. He was the
“Good,” we said, just as straightfor- customer.
wardly, afraid he would change his The salesman took that to mean that
mind. I knew nothing at all about guitars and

54 | 12›2017
that, obviously, the boy didn’t either.
He brought out a guitar that was
“super for solos,” as he put it, then an-
other encrusted with mother-of-pearl,
then all the rubbishy expensive guitars
that he hadn’t succeeded in flogging.
My son couldn’t see one he wanted.
He was too timid to play in front of
strangers. He asked, “Can I look on
my own?” Disgusted that suckers like
these were making such a fuss, the
salesman let him head into the depths
of the shop.
As I waited, I thought back to my
very first guitar. I’d have liked my fa-
ther to come to the music shop with
me, but he had decided that I should
go and choose it with our neighbors’
son. Michel was his name. His parents
were devastated that he wanted to give
up studying medicine to become a gui-
tar player, and he felt so conflicted that
he didn’t know what to do any more.
My father had helped Michel follow
his passion and also intervened to re-
assure his family. It was a big thing for
him to do. Admirable. But I knew one
thing for sure: my father would never
have let me give up my studies to fol-
low my heart. I hated Michel with a
fierce and dark envy.
I arrived a quarter of an hour late to
meet up with him to buy the instru-
ment. He had already left, or more
likely, he had never turned up. No
way was I going home empty-handed!
I chose my guitar all by myself. When
I got home there was a terrible scene.
Who did I think I was? It was a cheap
little beginner’s guitar. I loved it from
the first note. It sounded terrific.
My son returned from the back of
the shop, carrying a folk guitar. It was
definitely the right one. The salesman
tried to talk him into a more expensive
model by giving him a flashy dem-
onstration. We had to hold back our
laughter when he massacred the intro
to “Stairway to Heaven.” Then my son
said, “Let’s go, Dad!”
The salesman brought the guitar to
the till. My son picked out a few notes,
one ear pressed to the body of the in-
strument. He made a face.
“That’s not mine.”
“Yes, it is. It’s the same model,” the
salesman assured him.
“It’s not his,” I said.
The salesman headed back to the
stockroom. He returned with the folk
guitar. My son picked out a few notes.
He smiled at me.
ON CHRISTMAS DAY, he took his gui-
tar from beneath the tree, unwrapped
it and handed it immediately to my
father—eager for his verdict. With
the solemn intensity of an expert, his
grandfather played some slow chords
and long arpeggios.
“This little guitar sounds terrific.”
“It’s me who chose it all by myself!”
my son pointed out.
“Well done, my lad, I’m proud of
you,” said my father.
We sat down to Christmas dinner.
That year the turkey tasted even better
than usual.
12›2017 | 55
 The disease is a killer, but as many as
60 percent of all cases in Europe are linked
to causes we can control

Lower
Your
Risk
Breast
for

Cancer BY LISA BENDALL

56 | 12›2017
12›2017 | 57
B
READER’S DIGEST

REAST CANCER IS THE MOST COMMON CANCER

among European women. Even though the five-year
survival rate—82 percent—has vastly improved over the
past 30 years, one in eight women can still expect to
be diagnosed with breast cancer. (It’s about 100 times
rarer in men.) Many risk factors are out of our control:
we’re more likely to develop the disease the older we get, for
instance, or the taller we are, although this link may have to do with
factors such as diet in childhood that contribute to height in
adulthood. But current research is finding that women can, to some
extent, shape their own odds.

“It’s incredibly important that people cancer specifically by as much as 10

know they are not powerless,” says Su-
sannah Brown, senior scientist at the
World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)
in London, U.K. “There are steps they
can take to help reduce their risk.”
Earlier this year, the WCRF part-
nered with the American Institute
for Cancer Research to analyze more
percent. Two drinks and you double
it by up to 20 percent.
“A lot of women are shocked by
that,” says Dr. Julian Kim, a radiation
oncologist with CancerCare Manitoba
in Winnipeg. “They want to drink a
glass of wine to relax, and they think
they’re getting away scot-free.” Alco-

P HOTO (P REVIOUS SP READ) : ©M ASTERFI LE, ©I STOCKP HOTO

than 100 studies drawing on data from
millions of women around the world.
They found strong evidence of low-
ered breast cancer risk with simple
lifestyle interventions. “It’s never too
late to get healthier,” says Brown. “But
the earlier you start, the better.”
Here’s how to lower your risk.
■ REDUCE ALCOHOL INTAKE
If you’re drinking for your health,
think again. What you’re actually do-
ing is raising your risk of seven differ-
ent cancers, including colorectal and
liver cancer. One drink a day increases
your chances of developing breast
hol can increase levels of estrogen,
which, like other hormones, delivers
messages that control cell division in
the body. Increased lifetime estrogen
exposure is associated with breast
cancer.
That’s why getting your first period
before age 12 and reaching meno-
pause after 55 are risk factors for the
disease. Plus, when we metabolize
alcohol, it’s converted into a toxic by-
product called acetaldehyde, which
can damage DNA and interfere with
our ability to repair it.
“Even less than one drink a day
raises the risk for breast cancer by 5

58 | 12›2017
percent compared with non-drinkers,”
says Dr. Evandro de Azambuja, Medi-
cal Director of the Breast European
Adjuvant Study Team at the Institut
Jules Bordet in Brussels.
■ BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE
Exercise lowers the risk of breast can-
cer, and being inactive increases it.
The protective effects vary depending
on whether or not you’re postmeno-
pausal, whether the exercise is mod-
erate or vigorous (gauged by whether
THE MORE YOU
EXERCISE, THE LOWER
YOUR RISK FOR
BREAST CANCER. AIM
FOR AT LEAST 30
MINUTES EVERY DAY.
or not you can chat comfortably while
engaged in it), and how much time
you devote to physical activity.
“The more you exercise, the lower
your risk for breast cancer,” says Dr.
Jayant Vaidya, MBBS, PhD, breast sur-
geon and professor of surgery and on-
cology at University College London.
Studies show that premenopausal
women who are the most active cut
their risk by 17 percent.
Aim for at least 30 minutes of brisk
exercise a day for prevention, but
remember that any activity is better
than none. “We know (exercise) also
reduces the risk of at least 13 other
cancers,” says Dr. Christine Frieden-
reich, a Calgary, Canada based epide-
miologist at Alberta Health Services,
who is part of a project to quantify all
modifiable risk factors for all cancers
across Canada.
It’s likely there are many differ-
ent ways physical activity is protec-
tive against breast cancer. Exercise
decreases levels of estrogen in post-
menopausal women and improves the
immune system, and if you’re active
outdoors, the vitamin D exposure from
the sun may even make a difference.
However, further research is needed
to understand the impact of different
kinds of activity on the body’s cells.
It can be challenging to incorporate
more exercise into our hectic lives,
but Shawn Chirrey, senior manager
of health promotion for the Canadian
Cancer Society, says that policy shifts
in workplaces and municipalities can
have an influence. Employers can
provide discount gym memberships
or find ways to increase activity levels
at work. Cities can build bike lanes.
“Environments can encourage people
to make physical activity part of their
day,” he says.
■ CONTROL YOUR WEIGHT
Being overweight or obese in later
adulthood is a clear risk factor for post-
menopausal breast cancer (a category
that includes most cases; an estimated
83 percent of breast cancers are diag-
12›2017 | 59
READER’S DIGEST
nosed after the age of 50). Putting on
weight after menopause also makes
you more likely to get breast cancer.
“Every 10 kilograms of postmeno-
pausal weight gain is associated with
an 18 percent relative increased risk,”
note Dr. Julian Kim at CancerCare
Manitoba. (“Relative risk” means
you’re 18 percent more likely to get
breast cancer than someone of similar
age and body type who hasn’t gained
weight. Maintaining a healthy weight
protects against other types of cancer
as well, not to mention diabetes, heart
disease and stroke.)
“There is increasing evidence link-
ing obesity to cancer,” says Dr. de
Azmbuja. “A recent analysis of 82
studies of more than 200,000 breast
PREVENTION IN A PILL
“OF ALL THE BIG CANCERS—breast,
lung, gastrointestinal—there’s only one
that can be prevented with medica-
tions, and that’s breast cancer,” says
Dr. Julian Kim at CancerCare Manitoba.
Tamoxifen and raloxifene, which block
estrogen receptors in breast cells,
provide up to a 50 percent reduction
in relative risk. Exemestane and
anastrozole lower residual levels of
estrogen in postmenopausal women,
resulting in an up to 65 percent
relative risk reduction.
This matters if your risk happens to
be higher than average to begin with.
60 | 12›2017
cancer patients found a 75 percent in-
crease in mortality in premenopausal
women and a 34 percent increase in
mortality in postmenopausal women
who were obese when their cancer
was diagnosed.”
As with exercise, there’s no single
reason why weight influences breast
cancer risk. After menopause, how-
ever, fat tissue is a key source of estro-
gen. Researchers have also identified
links between obesity and chronic
inflammation of fat tissue, which may
be responsible for an elevated cancer
risk in the breast. The same applies to
higher levels of insulin. Whatever the
reason, controlling weight, particu-
larly after menopause, will protect you
against breast cancer.
In 2015, an international study of more
than 67,000 women resulted in a
groundbreaking new breast cancer
risk calculator. Called the polygenic
risk score (PRS), it takes into account
what’s in your genes—not whether
you carry a BRCA gene mutation—
but whether a particular set of
spelling mistakes in your genome is
associated with greater or lower odds
of developing breast cancer.
Research is ongoing, but It is
important that women talk to their
doctor or specialist about whether
they should take medication.
■ AVOID HORMONE
REPLACEMENT THERAPY
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
is used to treat symptoms of meno-
pause caused by sharply declining es-
trogen levels, like hot flashes, sleep dis-
ruption and vaginal dryness. It involves
taking supplemental estrogen by pill or
patch, sometimes in combination with
another hormone, progestin. But ex-
perts estimate that HRT, which exposes
postmenopausal women to increased
estrogen, causes 15 percent of all new
cases of breast cancer.
“Deciding whether to take HRT is a
complex decision a woman needs to
make with a specialist,” says Dr. Vaidya.
“HRT increases the risk for breast
cancer, but can also make a huge im-
provement in the quality of life in some
women with severe menopausal symp-
toms. Each woman needs to carefully
consider the pros and cons to make a
joint decision with their doctor.”
Depending on your symptoms, your
doctor may suggest local estrogen
therapy, which uses low-dose vaginal
estrogen, like a cream or ring, and car-
ries a much lower risk because very
little estrogen will get into your blood-
stream and circulate. If you do opt for
hormone replacement therapy, use it
for as short a period as possible, and
no more than five years. The elevated
risk of breast cancer dissipates a few
years after stopping HRT.
“Combined estrogen/progesterone
therapy has the greatest risks when
used for longer than three to five years,
so if you and your doctor decide the
benefits of HRT outweigh the risks,
take it for no longer than this time,”
says Dr. de Azambuja.
WHILE THE EMERGING evidence for
preventing breast cancer is hope-
ful, putting it into practice may seem
daunting. “To make healthy lifestyle
changes that will last, find a way to
fit them into your daily routine, and
don’t try to incorporate too many at
once,” advises Brown.
“If you’re overweight, dieting and ex-
ercising about eight hours a week, is
enough to take off kilos,” says Dr. de
Azambuja. “The weight loss will not
only help you feel good, but you’ll re-
duce your risk for breast cancer, too.”
With additions by the editors

I GOT MARRIED ON VALENTINE’S DAY

I got married on Valentine’s Day so my husband would remember our

anniversary. Now I have to remind him when Valentine’s Day is.
REAL ESTATE MOGUL BARBARA CORCORAN
IN THE NEW YORK POST

12›2017 | 61
 Points to Ponder
BEING ASKED TO explain why I love WE MUST continue to go into
America is sometimes like being space for the future of humanity.
asked to explain why I love my I don’t think we will survive another
fiancée. There are all the tangible thousand years without escaping
things you can rattle off so as not beyond our fragile planet.
to look sentimental and irrational.
But then there is the fact that you STEPHEN HAWKING,
just do, and you ultimately can say p hy s i c i s t , in a speech at the Oxford Union

little more than that.

IS EMPATHIZING with people that
CHARLES C. W. COOKE, you have powerful differences with
B r i t i s h - b o r n Am e r i c a n w r i t e r, tantamount to compromise with
in National Review
them and, in a sense, weakening
your own moral positions? My
THINK OF BOREDOM as an internal answer is “Absolutely not.”
alarm. When it goes off, it is telling
us something. It signals the presence ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD,
of an unfulfilling situation. a u t h o r, in an interview with the National
Book Foundation

ANDREAS ELPIDOROU,
p h i l o s o p hy p r o f e s s o r, on aeon.co

There’s a Tibetan
saying: “Wherever
you have friends,
that’s your country,
and wherever you
receive love, that’s
your home.” THE DALAI LAMA,
spiritual leader of Tibet,
in his book The Book of Joy

62 | 12›2017
 I’ve noticed a parallel
between adult tantrums
and child tantrums ...
I desperately want
to walk up to certain
people ... and say,
“Talk to your body.
Just use your words.”
KRISTEN BELL, a c t r e s s , in Redbook

FROM ORBIT you see the repeated

patterns of human settlement and
KRISTIA N DOW LIN G/GETTY I MAGES . ILLUSTRATI ON BY TRACY TURNBULL

civilization, and inevitably start to

sense that each of us inherently wants
the same things out of life—joy, grace,
time and stability to think, better
SOURCE P HOTOGRAP H: F RAZER HA RRISON/GETTY IM AGES

opportunities for our children, laugh- [SPAM] MAY MUTATE, but it’s not
ter, someone to love. The precept of going to stop. Spam is where evil
Us and Them is one that is taught; meets advertising, and no one has
it’s not the fundamental reality. ever gotten rid of either of them.

CHRIS HADFIELD, ELIZABETH ZWICKY,

astronaut, on Reddit.com Ya h o o a n t i -s p a m a r c h i t e c t ,
in the New York Times

SOMEONE ONCE TOLD ME that

the secret to success is being the YOU HAVE TO make what you want
person who other people want to to see in the world. That is basically
see succeed. It’s more important your obligation if you’re an artist. For
than talent, brains, or luck. that matter, even if you’re a plumber.

DICK PARSONS, CARRIE MAE WEEMS,

f o r m e r Ti m e Wa r n e r C E O, in Vanity Fair p h o t o g ra p h e r, in Lenny

12›2017 | 63
64
|
12›2017
P HOTO: ©PA IM AGES/ALAM Y STOCK
23 surprising love and marriage customs of the world

Better
For

Worse
BY LOUISE BASTOCK

or
FR O M LO N ELYP LA N ET.CO M

At a handfasting wedding ceremony

in Somerset County, UK, the
bride and groom jump a broom
with hands bound together.
L
READER’S DIGEST
OVE IS UNIVERSAL,
yes—but romance
takes an astonishing
array of forms
around the world.
If you’ve never wooed your
beloved with a spoon, won your
partner’s weight in beer or been
to a spinsters’ ball, read on ...
1 Wife-carrying World
Championships
Each year competitors in the
village of Sonkajarvi, Finland, par-
take in this bizarre sporting event.
With wife or partner slung over the
shoulder, participants get stuck into a
variety of challenges and the winner
receives the partner’s weight in beer.
2 Graveside
in Russia
Weddings
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
is Moscow’s top destination for wed-
ding parties, who snap photos and
drink champagne while the bride and
groom pay their respects by laying
flowers at the grave site.
3 Whale’s Tooth Gifts
Think you’ve got it hard, shopping
for that perfect wedding gift? In Fiji
it’s common practice when asking for
a woman’s hand in marriage that the
man presents his soon-to-be father-
in-law with a tabua (whale’s tooth).
Because, let’s face it, it’s not real love
66 | 12›2017
unless you have to dive hundreds of
meters beneath the ocean and go toe
to fin with the world’s largest mammal.
4
Step Inside a
Courting Hut
Think you had cool parents
growing up? Think again. In a revolu-
tionary parenting style, some African
tribes provide their daughters with
“courting huts” to entertain poten-
tial suitors away from the parents’
gaze. A similar custom exists in Cam-
bodia, where unmarried teens are
PHOTOS, CLOCKWIS E F ROM TOP LEF T: ©TI MO HARTIKAI NEN /REX /SHUTTE RSTOCK; ©HE MIS/
encouraged to use these huts to find
that one true love.
5 Juliet’s
ALAMY STOCK X2 ; ©EMILY MA RIE W I LSON/SHUTTERSTOCK; © ARI F I QBALL /AL AMY
balcony
in Verona, Italy
Step back in time into the greatest
love story ever. Each year thousands
flock to Verona’s Casa di Giulietta, a
13th-century house believed to have
belonged to the Capulets (never mind
that they were all fictional characters),
to add their amorous graffiti and notes
of adoration to the courtyard walls
where once fair Juliet was wooed by
her Romeo.
6
Ladies’ Choice at
Gerewol Festival
In an annual courtship
event, the men of the
Wodaabe in Niger dress up in elabo-
rate costumes, put on make-up and
dance and sing in a bid to win a bride.
At the end of the performance, the
women do the choosing.
 Wife-carrying
world championships

Juliet’s balcony
in Verona, Italy

Ladies’ Choice at
Gerewol Festival

Graveside
weddings
in Russia
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT

Henna tattoos
12›2017 | 67
READER’S DIGEST
7
Tragic Myth
of Imilchil
Marriage Festival
Set against the mystery and
romance of the Atlas Mountains of
Morocco, legend tells the story of two
star-crossed lovers forbidden to see
each other. The heartbroken couple
drowned in their own tears, forcing
their families to reconcile and estab-
lish what’s now known as the Imilchil
Marriage Festival. Each year feasting,
flirting and frivolity is the backdrop
for local tribes people to socialize and
potentially meet their future partner.
8 Henna
Tattoos
In Arabic and African communities,
Swahili women adorn themselves
with intricate henna patterns before
a wedding. They signify the bride’s
beauty, womanhood and worth, so
she, naturally, boasts the most elab-
orate designs. Aside from their aes-
thetic delights, these tattoos repre-
sent an empowering, sensual quality
in Swahili culture, as the design often
conceals the groom’s initials in a se-
cret spot on the bride’s body.
9 My Big, ‘Rich’
Greek Wedding
Greek weddings are known
for their ebullient spirit. A wonderful
tradition is the couple’s first dance,
when guests pin money to the bride’s
and groom’s clothing, leaving them
twirling about the floor entwined in
68 | 12›2017
decorative (not to mention, expen-
sive) paper streams.
PHOTOS, CLOCKWIS E F ROM TOP LEFT: © REX /S HUTTERSTOCKREX/SH UTTE RSTOCK; ©IMAG E BROKE R/ RE X/SHU TTE RSTOCK; ©R E MY D E L A
10 Mt. Hagen
Sing-Sings
Papua New Guinea tribesmen paint
their bodies and don colorful feathered
MAUVINIERE/AP/REX /SHUTTERSTOC K; ©GEOF F WILKI NS ON/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ©TRINITY MIRROR/ MIRRORPIX/AL AMY
costumes in an attempt to impress po-
tential lovers. The sing-sings are a kind
of spiritual mimesis—the tribesmen
take on the form and mating rituals of
the male birds-of-paradise in a kalei-
doscopic show of affection.
11 Eloping in Scotland
When the Marriage Act
of 1754 made it illegal
for persons under 21 to get hitched,
young English sweethearts hopped
across the border to Scotland where
the law didn’t apply. As the first vil-
lage en route, Gretna Green grew into
the favorite spot for eloping couples—
to this day, some 5,000 couples visit
each year to tie the knot or reaffirm
their vows.
12 Love Spoons in Wales
This adorable Welsh tradition
gives a whole new meaning to the
term “spooning.” The beau presents
his lover with a meticulously carved
wooden spoon as a gesture that he
will always feed and provide for her.
13 Love Padlocks in Italy
Inspired by Federico Moc-
cia’s book and film I Want You, many
people began attaching their own love
Eloping in Scotland

Mt. Hagen
sing-sings

Love padlocks
First dance
tradition

Love spoons
in Wales
12›2017 | 69
READER’S DIGEST

padlocks to the Ponte Milvio in Rome.
In what is now a worldwide phe-
nomenon, couples attach the locks
and throw the key into the river as a
symbol of their unbreakable love and
commitment to one another. How-
ever, these trinkets have caused quite
a controversy of late, particularly in
Paris where, besides being an eyesore,
they are becoming an environmental
hazard and have to be removed.
and placed at the head of the top table
of the wedding reception. Toward the
end of the celebrations, the charms
are handed out to the guests as tokens
of love and thanks.
17 Ghadames
Festival
Date
As the date harvest comes to an end
in Ghadames, Libya, locals flock to the
World Heritage–listed old quarter to
relish in their fruitful harvest. As the

14 China’s
Blockade
Bridesmaid
As if the wedding day wasn’t stress-
festivities progress, many wedding
ceremonies are held as a coming-of-
age celebration for young men.
ful enough, when the Chinese groom
comes to fetch his bride, he’s confronted
by a barrage of bridesmaids block-
ing his entrance. After demanding red
envelopes of money, the bridesmaids
(and sometimes even the groomsmen)
18 Tree’s the
One for Me
Some unlucky girls in
India are born during the astrologi-
cal period when Mars and Saturn are
subject the groom to a series of games both under the seventh house. What’s
and physical tasks—he is forced to so wrong with that, you ask? Basically,
sing and generally teased to prove his it means they are cursed. Those un-
love. fortunate ones, known as Mangliks,
are said to have an unhappy union

15 White Day in Japan

On Valentine’s Day in Japan it’s
the women who buy chocolates for the
men. But never fear, ladies: one month
later it’s White Day, when the chaps
have to splash out for the girls if their
feelings are mutual--and they are ex-
pected to spend three times as much.
if they marry a non-Manglik or even
bring an early death to their husband.
The remedy? Have the Manglik marry
a tree and then have the tree cut down
to break the curse.
19 Korea’s Monthly
Valentine’s Day
Why have one day when you can have

16 The Bride Doll

This simple and sweet
Puerto Rican tradition
sees a bride doll draped in charms
12? In Korea they don’t just celebrate
Valentine’s Day on February 14—in
fact, the 14th day of every month holds
romantic significance. With days for

70 | 12›2017
singletons, days for friends and days across the bride and groom supping
just to hug, there’s something to cel- on chocolates and champagne served
ebrate no matter what your relation- out of a replica toilet bowl.
ship status.

20
Bachelor and
Spinster Balls
in Australia’s
Outback
A cherished Aussie tradition, B and
S Balls offer a rare opportunity for
youngsters in the Outback to social-
ize—that would be the censored ver-
sion. Notorious for binge drinking,
dangerous stunts and casual sex,
these parties are under pressure from
insurance companies to close down.
But the Balls are seen as a rite of pas-
sage for kids who often lead quite se-
cluded lives.
22
Salty Bread
to Inspire
Romantic Dreams
In a celebration of the feast of St. Sar-
kis, the patron saint of young love,
unmarried Armenian women eat a
slice of salty bread in the hopes of
having a prophetic dream about the
man they’ll marry. Not to be taken
too seriously, the idea is that the man
who brings you water in your dream
is your future husband. It’s also a kind
of bonding ritual for the women in
the family to share and interpret each
other’s dreams.

21 France’s Toilet
Tradition
In a weird, wonderful, yet utterly
gross fashion, French newlyweds were
made to drink the leftovers from their
wedding party out of a toilet bowl.
Thankfully, this custom no longer ex-
ists in its entirety, but you may come
FROM WWW.LONELYPLANET.COM, COPYRIGHT © LONELY PLANET, 2014, LONELYPLANET.COM
23 TV Dating in India
India is a country where mar-
riage is revered, so advertising pro-
spective suitors and singles in local
papers and online is commonplace,
but a new Hindi-language channel is
taking it one step further. Shagun TV
channel features a glitzy show that is
basically teleshopping for singles.

HOLIER THAN THOU EVEN IMAGINED

The farewell word goodbye first came into use in the late
1500s as an alteration of the phrase God be with you.
Similarly, the Spanish sign-off adios is a contraction of the phrase
a Dios—literally meaning “to God.”
Source: english.stackexchange.com

12›2017 | 71
After 53 years of severely
impaired vision, I learned of an
operation that promised to
restore my sight—though it
wasn’t without risks

I WA S B L I N D ,
B U T NOW

I SEE
BY ROZINA ISSANI F R O M TORONTO LIFE

72 | 12›2017
W
READER’S DIGEST
HEN I WAS EIGHT
months old and
starting to crawl,
I began bumping
into things. It was
1962, and we were living in Karachi,
Pakistan. When my parents took me
for my first eye exam, at age two, the
doctor said the problem was likely
caused by optic nerve damage at
birth. He told my parents that my vi-
sion would probably improve over
the next few years as the nerves re-
paired themselves.
Aside from my bad eyesight, I had
a happy childhood. My father, Essa,
ran a successful exporting business.
My mother, Fatma, stayed home with
me and my older brothers, Jalaludin
and Hussein Ali. We lived in a three-
bedroom apartment in a middle-class
neighborhood.
Growing up, I had about 10 percent
vision. Everything was blurry, but I
saw shapes and could differentiate
between light and dark. In 1960s Paki-
stan, we didn’t have many specialized
schools. No one carried white canes
or owned service dogs. I could mem-
orize the layout of a room, and I was
able to detect where something was
by assessing the volume and direction
of the sound that bounced off it. It was
my own version of echolocation.
AS THE TIME CAME for me to sign up
for kindergarten, my father was afraid
that other kids would bully me, that
I’d hurt myself and that I’d fall behind,
74 | 12›2017
so I was home-schooled.
My doctor encouraged my parents
to give me a formal education. When
I was eight, they finally relented. That
September, I enrolled in Grade 2 at
an all-girls academy near my house.
Though my parents told my teachers
about my impairment, my eyes looked
normal, and no one believed I was
blind. Once, on a dark and rainy day,
the light wasn’t strong enough for me
to write a test. The instructor accused
me of lying and smacked me on the
forearm with a wooden ruler.
I HAD NO CAREER
PROSPECTS AND NO
HUSBAND. WHEN
MY PARENTS DIED,
I WOULD BE LOST.
AROUND MY 20TH BIRTHDAY, the real-
ity started sinking in. In the Pakistani
PHOTO (PREVIOUS S PREA D): DEREK SHAP TON
Muslim tradition, parents arranged all
marriages, and they were determined
to find the ideal woman for their sons:
gorgeous, educated, family-oriented.
Blindness didn’t fit the bill.
I had little education, no career
prospects and no husband—when
my parents died, I would be lost. My
two brothers had gone to school in
Canada, married and started new
lives. My father decided we should
immigrate and join them.
 We arrived in Toronto in June
1983, when I was 22. I stayed with my
brother Hussein Ali, his wife and their
17-month-old daughter, while my
parents lived with Jalaludin’s family. I
spent the first few months immersed
in soap operas, hoping to pick up
some English.
Within eight months, I saw an oph-
thalmologist, who referred me to a
retinal specialist at the Hospital for
Sick Children. I learned that I’d been
born with a degenerative eye condi-
tion called retinitis pigmentosa, which
causes a slow, progressive loss of vi-
sion. The retina is equipped with mil-
lions of receptors called rods (which
receive light) and cones (which take
in color). Retinitis pigmentosa causes
those receptors to wither away until
they disappear. The author at seven, in Karachi
Then the doctor confirmed my
fears: “Unfortunately, there is no cure. tually become independent. I signed
Your vision will continue to deterio- up for courses through the organiza-
rate until you are completely blind.” tion’s career center.
My world crumbled. In Canada, In 1991, I got a call from a friend at
I thought I might attend college. I the CNIB telling me that a local foun-
wanted to travel. I wanted to live by dation was looking for a receptionist.
myself. Every night I’d sob in my room When I got the job, my parents were
after everyone else had gone to bed. thrilled—especially my dad. He’d left
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTH OR

What was my life going to be like? everything behind in Pakistan in the

THE NEXT TIME I saw my doctor, in
1985, he referred me to the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
They taught me how to use a collaps-
ible cane to navigate stairs and pub-
lic transit. The staff, who were mostly
blind, helped me realize I could even-
hope that I might have my own life
one day.
Though I was nervous, things at my
new job went better than I’d hoped.
I organized the photocopy room so
I’d know where each type and color
of paper was. I memorized extension
numbers and learned to identify board

12›2017 | 75
members by voice. A few months after
I started, my parents and I moved to
a new apartment.

SIX YEARS LATER, TRAGEDY struck.

A week before Christmas, my father
started having chest pain. Within a few
minutes, he was unable to move. He’d
had a massive heart attack, and he died
later that day. He was 71 years old.
I went back to work after a month
of mourning, but my mother never
recovered. Nine months later, in Sep-
tember 1997, she had a heart attack
and died within a week. Losing both
of my parents in a year was devastat- The Argus sends data from camera-
ing. Even worse, my eyesight was de- equipped glasses to a retinal implant.
teriorating. Within nine months of my
mother’s death, I had lost 100 percent my father and mother. I’d never been
of my vision. I couldn’t even detect alone before. I placed fuzzy stick-
the shifting of the light. I was 35, blind ers on my oven and microwave so I
and an orphan. would know which buttons to push.
Accepting my blindness was liberat-
IT TOOK A MOVE to help me snap out ing. I was finally independent.
of my depression. I’d been staying
with my brother Hussein Ali since my IN NOVEMBER 2014, I heard a radio
mother died, but a friend suggested I interview with Dr. Robert Devenyi, the
live by myself on a trial basis. I listened. ophthalmologist-in-chief at the Uni-
In the spring of 1998, six months after versity Health Network in Toronto. He
moving in with my brother, I returned was talking about the Argus II Retinal
to my own apartment. Prosthesis System. The implant, also
I had to learn how to do everything known as the bionic eye, can help
P HOTO: DEREK SHAP TON

my parents had taken care of. I regis-
tered for my first bank account. I fig-
ured out how to use a coin-operated
washing machine and dryer.
Those first few weeks at the apart-
ment were strange. The place was so
empty without the familiar sounds of
restore a blind person’s vision. At the
time, only a handful of people had
undergone the operation. And Dr.
Devenyi had brought the procedure
to Toronto. I called the doctor’s office
and made an appointment for the ear-
liest time available—January 2015.

76 | 12›2017

Here’s how the Argus works: dur-
ing surgery, doctors place an implant
on the patient’s retina. It contains 60
electrodes to replace the damaged
photoreceptors, along with a receiver
chip that resembles a watch battery.
After recovery, the patient wears
glasses equipped with a camera. A
unit at the patient’s waist processes
the footage and sends it wirelessly to
the retinal implant. The receiver then
transmits an electrical signal to the
brain, and this produces an image.
I endured tests to confirm I had
no functional vision. In this case, my
failure was my success. The results
showed that I was a perfect candidate
for the Argus II. Dr. Devenyi explained
the risks. My eyes could start bleeding
or become infected. My body might
reject the implant. At worst, my retina
might detach from my eye. I didn’t
care. I was 53 and completely blind—
I had nothing to lose.
ON MARCH 30, 2015, at 7 a.m., I went
to Toronto Western Hospital for the
operation. It lasted four hours, and
when I woke up, I had a patch over my
left eye. We had to wait for it to heal
before we could activate the Argus
with the accompanying glasses.
Three weeks later, it was time. I
was terrified. What if it didn’t work?
I put the glasses on my face. The
technician gradually increased the
electrical impulse. And then it hap-
pened: I saw light for the first time
© 2016, ROZINA ISSANI. FROM “LIVING IN THE DARK,” TORONTO LIFE (MAY 24, 2016). TORONTOLIFE.COM
READER’S DIGEST
in 15 years—a soft, radiant glow. I
burst into tears. I could make out Dr.
Devenyi, the technicians, the nurses,
my friends. Though they were just
dark shapes, without detail or defi-
nition, I was able to perceive people
moving around. I didn’t detect any
colors, just black and white. But I
could see!
THE MORE I USE the device, the bet-
ter my brain can interpret what the
Argus sends it. I see something new
almost every day—my vision has im-
proved, and I explore the world more
than I used to. The first week, I was
out walking and saw what looked like
a fuzzy black tower on the street. It
was a traffic light. Then I spotted the
button you press to change the traffic
light. I had no idea what it was; my
friend had to explain it to me. On a
clear night, I even gazed at the moon.
I will never see perfectly. Objects
are still often a few centimeters away
from where my eye tells me they are.
I have to grope around for my phone,
for food at restaurants, for the door-
knob whenever I enter my house. I
will have to use my cane for the rest
of my life, but it’s been more than a
year since my operation and I’ve re-
gained more of my vision than I ever
thought possible.
I am 54 years old as I write this.
People have always told me we live in
a beautiful world. I’m glad I finally get
to see it for myself.
12›2017 | 77
For young and old alike,
visiting the Christmas tree
in the Lithuanian capital of
Vilnius in 2015 was quite
literally like entering a fairy
tale—visitors could enjoy a
unique storytime experience
inside the tree itself! While
the outside was decked out
with fir tree branches, the
inside comprised a cosy
65 square-meter cottage
where well-known Lithuanian
personalities read Christmas
tales to their enchanted
audiences.

P HOTO: © LUKAS JONAI TIS/A LAM Y STOCK PH OTO

78 | 12›2017
 Oh
Join us on a tour
of Europe’s
most remarkable
festive trees

Christmas
Tree!
BY CORNELIA KUMFERT

12›2017 | 79
 The height of festive consum-
erism? That may be the first im-

P HOTOS: (CLOCKWISE FROM RIG HT TO L E FT) © E SCAPE T H E OFFICE J OB /

pression conveyed by this London

A LAMY STOCK PHOTO; © ACTION PRESS/SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV/TASS;

Christmas tree. In fact nothing
could be further from the truth.
The 2,000 toys used to build the
14-meter-high tree were all
donated to a children’s charity.
The world‘s largest Christmas
tree is made entirely of light!
On December 7th every year, the
Albero di Natale lights up the
Italian town of Gubbio. More than
250 green lights trace the outline
of a 650-meter-high tree on the
slopes of Mount Ingino.

© IM AGO STOCK& PE OPL E

You might have thought that
this 30-meter Russian tree at the
entrance to Moscow’s famous Gorky
Park had been blown over by the
wind. But as well as lying on its
side, Russia’s tallest Christmas tree
was also suspended in mid-air.
12›2017 | 81
READER’S DIGEST

There can have been few Christmas

trees more colourful than the one that
lit up the town of Rakvere in Estonia
two years ago. This tree’s highly con-

P HOTOS: (CLOCKWISE FROM RIG HT TO L E FT) © SAND E R D E WIL D E /G E T T Y

temporary appearance was created

I MAGES ; © I MAGO STOCK& PE OPL E ; © PE TR KOVAL E NKOV/AL AMY STOCK

using 121 illuminated colored windows
recycled from old houses in the town.
Wherever would they think of building
a Christmas tree out of cubes? In Brus-
sels, that’s where! However, this light
installation didn’t go down well with
the public and this year the Belgian

P HOTO; © RAIGO PAJ U L A/AFP/G E TTY IMAG E S

capital’s Grand Place will once again be
graced by a traditional fir tree.
It takes them four weeks to put
their Christmas tree up in Dortmund.
But then, this 45-meter-high colossus is
no ordinary tree—it is actually made of
1,700 individual Norway spruce trees!
Galeries Lafayette in Paris sought to
draw attention to climate change by
transforming itself into an Arctic won-
derland. In 2016, all of the decorations,
including the more than four-floor-high
tree, were made of white paper.

82 | 12›2017
 Life’s Like That
THE SECRET LIFE OF ANIMALS
WHEN A FRIEND learned that I was
seeing a man 15 years my junior, she
accused me of being a cougar.
“Why not?” I said. “My last two
husbands were cheetahs.”
ELIZABETH RYLAN, Pa l m Ha r b o r, F l o r i d a
AS ANY SOUTHERNER knows,
there’s nothing like a backhanded
compliment from a proper southern
84 | 12›2017
COURTESY F LATIRON BOOKS, © 2016 BY BROOKE BARKER
lady. Here are some favorites from the
Alabama-based website al.com. Y’all
feel free to borrow them:
■ “I just love how you don’t care
what people think. That takes a
special person.”
■ “I bet those shoes are comfortable.”
■ After you tell her you lost nine
pounds: “Well, that’s a wonderful
start.”
 ■ After you arrive for a visit: “What’d
you do, sugar, drive all the way here
with the windows down?”
■ After you’ve cooked: “That was
good. I must have been hungry.”
■ “I bought this the other day, but it’s
too big on me. Do you want it?”
MY MOM SENT ME a text that said
“I love you,” and she ended it with a
poop emoji. I asked why she added
the emoji. She said, “I thought it was
a Hershey’s Kiss.” @BRIGREENSPAN
DURING MY 55TH high school
class reunion, I spotted an old
friend. “Bill!” I shouted. “You look
exactly the same as you did in high
school.”
He nodded. “Now I know why I
never got a date in high school.”
PATTY CHANDLEE, D u b u q u e , Io w a

LORD, HELP US!

Our two-year-old, why I’m going to his sermon all over

Tess, was sitting confession. I’ve been again.” From gcfl.net

quietly in church one so busy, I haven’t had

Sunday when she
became mesmerized
by a balding man
seated in front. Her
curiosity got the
better of her, and
she shouted for all
to hear, “Why is that
man’s head coming
out of his hair?”
JOAN ANASTASI,
D i a m o n d B a r,
California
While standing on
line for confession,
SHUTTERSTOCK
a minute to sin.”
STEVE JAKIN,
Fe d e ra l Wa y ,
Wa s h i n g t o n
After a worship
service, a mother
with a fidgety seven-
year-old told me
how she finally got
her son to sit still
and be quiet. About
halfway through the
sermon, she leaned
over and whispered,
“If you’re not quiet,
During Bible studies,
I asked my fifth-grade
students to name
the first couple. They
correctly answered
Adam and Eve. But
when I asked about
the first children, they
were silent. So I said,
“One son’s name
started with C, for
Cain. The second son’s
name started with A,
for—”
One student shouted,
“Adam Junior!”

I overheard a woman Pastor Charlton is PEGGY JOHNSON,

whisper to her friend, going to lose his place Cornelia,
“I really don’t know and will have to start Georgia

12›2017 | 85
Readers’ real-life stories of pets and
wildlife that amuse, help and inspire

Creature
Comforts
F R OM TH E B O O K O U R ANI MAL FR I E N DS

I
Crowd Pleaser
N THE MID-1980S, I had just completed a
successful season with my jazz duo in Lon-
don, and we were booked for a six-month
contract at The Golden Hat Piano Bar in
Paris. One night, just before our 1 a.m. fin-
ish and when the crowd had thinned out, a young
man in blue jeans and a light leather jacket walked
in with his small companion. He chose a table near
the band and ordered a cocktail for himself and an
orange juice for his friend.
They sat and listened to the music. When we
had finished the number, the little friend, who was
dressed in overalls and a red-checkered cap, care-
fully put his orange juice down on the table, and
they both clapped enthusiastically.
Well, we couldn’t very well stop at that when
we had two such delightful customers enjoying
the music, so we played on for another half hour,
thoroughly enjoying our small but select audience.
What made it an occasion to remember was that

86 | 12›2017
12›2017 | 87
READER’S DIGEST
the pleasant young man could have
been from anywhere, but his little
companion—was a chimpanzee!
Surely, only in Paris!
—Leigh Weston
Tiger Earns His Stripes
MY CAT, TIGER, hates it when I use
my iPad because it takes my attention
away from him. One year, I had a fall
at home and was on the floor for 16
hours. During this time, I was unable
to move and couldn’t get to the phone
to call for help. Tiger stayed by my
side until he vanished under my bed.
What’s he up to? I wondered. To my
surprise, he started to push something
toward me. It was my iPad, which I
didn’t realize had fallen off the bed
and onto the floor underneath. He
probably didn’t know what it was, but
he knew that it made me happy.
Thanks to Tiger, I was able to con-
tact a friend, who then contacted
emergency services. I spent the next
eight days in hospital recovering.
When I returned home, I bought Tiger
a salmon out of gratitude.
—Ray Betteridge
Gentleman in the City
A FEW YEARS AGO, after a long morn-
ing of sightseeing in New York, my
children and I took a breather on a
park bench in Central Park.
‘Look!’ my son said, pointing to a
nearby rubbish bin. That’s when we
saw our first raccoon. Quite at home
in the big city, he paid us no heed,
88 | 12›2017
concentrating only on finding a tasty
lunch. He sorted through a few op-
tions before emerging with a wrapped
sandwich held between his paws.
Satisfied, he jumped down and am-
bled casually to a spot on the gravel
path, not a meter from where we sat.
The children were mesmerized, the
raccoon providing better entertain-
ment than any museum.
He glanced at us, perhaps as reas-
surance that we weren’t about to pil-
fer his lunch. With delicate fingers, he
peeled back the layers of plastic wrap
until the half-eaten sandwich was un-
covered. Then he surprised us all. In-
stead of starting his food, he turned to
a nearby rain puddle and dipped his
hands in. With a casual air, he rubbed
his hands together underwater for a
moment, preened his whiskers, then
started genteelly picking at his meal.
—Elizabeth Strachan
Pushed to the Edge
I
GOT MY new guide dog, Zeke, in
2011. He’s a black Labrador who
loves everyone. Sadly, Zeke can ALL ILLUSTRATI ONS BY CLAI RE FLETCHER
become a little too enthusiastic, which
does not go well with Cocoa and Latte,
my two Burmese cats.
One day, when Zeke really an-
noyed Latte, she waited until he went
to bed before exacting her revenge.
She scaled a 1.8-meter bookshelf that
stood directly behind Zeke’s bed and
squeezed behind a suitcase that sat on
top. Once in position she walked back
and forth, using all her weight to push

on the suitcase. With a loud crash, the
suitcase toppled off the edge.
Zeke woke with a fright and dodged
out of the way before the suitcase
tumbled to the floor. I thought it must
have been an accident until Latte did
it again two weeks later after Zeke had
got on her nerves again. It wasn’t un-
til the third attempt that I decided to
move Zeke’s bed to a safer spot. Zeke
hasn’t annoyed Latte since.
—Kathryn Beaton
Paying Their Respects
ON A FROSTY, winter morning in June,
we awoke at about 7.30 a.m. to find
that our dear goat Clarabelle, who
was slightly overdue, had given
birth to—and lost—her baby.
This was her second pregnancy.
She had twins the previous year,
but this time she only had the one
and she was very distraught. Her
big eyes looked sadly into mine.
One of the most memorable
things that occurred during the
morning was the procession of
animals that went in and out
of the pen to pay their respects
to Clarabelle and her little one,
which we decided to name Rosie.
Cats went in with chickens and
ducks and, of course, the other
goats.
Her best friend Annie came in
with her newborn twin kids, while
Gus and Roddy, our male goats,
looked on through their fenced
paddock.
There were no fights and it was un-
usually quiet; all the animals were
very somber. Our cat Tabitha even
licked the baby and rubbed around
Clarabelle, which would not normally
happen. Birds sat quietly and looked
on from the trees and the air was
heavy with grief. It is something I will
always remember.
We left Clarabelle to grieve with
her baby for a day. She didn’t want to
leave it. She was fretful and “cried” for
days and didn’t want to eat anything.
It took a fortnight or more for her to
get through her mourning period.
—Tracey Ney
12›2017 | 89

Swine Sense
Y
EARS AGO we owned an English
setter named John, who often
suffered from infected or sore
ears. He was constantly being treated
for it, and absolutely loved ear rubs as
they seemed to make him feel better.
One day my brother’s pet pig, Chloe,
was in the front yard with John. When
John settled down for a nap, Chloe
trotted over and started rubbing be-
hind John’s ears with her snout. He
groaned with relief so Chloe contin-
ued rubbing his ears enthusiastically.
From that day on, whenever John
lay down, Chloe would trot over to rub
his ears. Maybe animals have a sixth
90 | 12›2017
sense and hers told her John needed
an ear rub. —Paula Glennie
Better Than a Bear Hug
IN THE 1970S, I worked as the carni-
vore keeper for a large UK zoo where
one of the earliest successful breedings
of a polar bear in captivity took place.
The mother and her male cub were
left undisturbed for three months fol-
lowing the cub’s arrival. However, by
the time the pair was finally released
into the outside enclosure, their swim-
ming pool had been drained of water
and filled with a thick layer of straw.
A crowd of VIPs and reporters gath-
ered to witness the cub’s first pub-
lic appearance. As soon as the pair
emerged, the fluffy cub began explor-
ing his surroundings and waddled up
a ramp that led to a diving platform
that projected five meters out over
the pool. Suddenly, the layer of straw
seemed inadequate.
Everyone held their breath as the
cub peered down at the long drop be-
low. He leaned even further forward
and lost his balance, somehow man-
aging to dangle helplessly by his fore-
paws from the edge of the platform.
Realizing his predicament, the cub let
out an anguished howl.
His mother had been exploring the
far side of the enclosure, completely
oblivious to her newborn’s predica-
ment. At the sound of his distress, she
raced across, jumped down into the
pool, raised herself on her hind legs
directly beneath him and stretched
 READER’S DIGEST

out her front paws. The cub released
his hold on the ledge and dropped
onto his mother’s waiting forelegs.
She lowered him gently onto the layer
of straw and then cuffed him around
the ear before returning to her explo-
ration of the enclosure.
—Nicholas Ordinans
Battered Chip
OUR PARAKEET CHIP and Goldie, a
stray tortoiseshell kitten we took in,
grew to be best friends, eating and
playing together. I was a member of a
bird conservation organization at the
time, so we often took care of injured
birds. Goldie helped raise dozens of
injured and orphaned native birds;
acting as a watchful guardian.
One day, it was Chip who needed
Goldie’s supervision. I had left a large
bowl of pancake batter uncovered in
the kitchen. But while I was out of the
room, Chip climbed onto the bowl to
have a taste but soon fell in and sank.
Luckily, Goldie was on hand and stuck
her face in the bowl to fish Chip out.
She cleaned his face and beak so he
could breathe before running to alert
me with a loud meow.
I followed Goldie, who was also cov-
FROM THE BOOK OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS, PUBLISHED BY READER’S DIGEST (AUSTRALIA),
PTY LIMITED, 2016, READERSDIGEST.COM.AU
ered in batter, back into the kitchen
and found a battered budgie on the
floor. After being washed, dried and
warmed, Chip made a full recovery.
Bowls were always covered in future
and Goldie and Chip remained the
best of friends. —Anne Marr
Love Birds
YEARS AGO my friend Julius rescued
an injured cockatoo from the side of
the road and kept it as a pet. As the vet
had to amputate one of her wings, she
was unable to return to the wild. Soon
wild cockatoos came visiting and one
amorous male bird managed to find
his way into the cage.
“Mom” Cocky was soon expecting
but as she couldn’t fly, “Dad” Cocky
gave up his freedom and built a nest
in the backyard, fending off every-
one who approached his bird bride.
“Baby” Cocky eventually fledged and
spent his days flying off with his dad,
leaving his mom behind. She would
sit and screech until they returned
home each afternoon.
The family stuck together and each
night Mom and Dad would sit and
lovingly groom each other. A true les-
son in devotion! — Colin Stringer

HEAVENLY MALADY
From a church weekly notice sheet: “12 p.m.: Please join us for lunch.
This will be followed by prayers for the sick.”
DAILY MAIL

12›2017 | 91
HONG KONG
20 YEARS
LATER

92 | 12›2017
 It’s been two decades since Britain handed over Hong
Kong to China. Our writer, a former resident, returned to
find the city as vibrant—and quirky—as ever.
BY BONNIE MUNDAY
PHOTO: © A LESSAN DRO DELLA BELLA /KEYSTONE/REDUX

View of Hong Kong Island from

Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade
V
READER’S DIGEST

I C T O R I A H A R B O R is billion dollar bridge linking Hong

breathtaking, especially
during the nightly laser
show, when the plea-
sure junks, ferries and
container ships seem to dance in the
lights. On this warm April night, my
husband, Jules, and I are standing
at the rail of a rooftop restaurant on
Hong Kong Island, in awe at the spec-
tacular skyline. Brightly lit skyscrap-
ers—some 1,300 of which are over 100
meters, by far the most of any city in
the world—spike the night sky around
us and across the teeming harbor on
Kowloon peninsula.
As the breeze shifts our hair, we
feel Hong Kong’s energy. In the dis-
tance twinkle the lights of Tsing Ma
suspension bridge, the world’s lon-
gest for cars and trains, whisking
people toward the modern 20-year-
old airport on Lantau Island. Be-
yond it is a nearly completed multi-
KOW LO O N
TSIM
SHA
TSUI
UR
BO
HAR
VICTORIA C AUSEW
AY
B AY
L
CENTRA AI
WA N C H
H O N G KO N G 1 km
ISLAND
Kong to Zhuhai in mainland China
and the gambling haven of Macau.
It feels good to be back. Jules and I
lived here in the 1990s, before Britain
relinquished Hong Kong to China in
1997. Now, 20 years later, we’ve re-
turned for 10 days to see how the city
has fared. It’s also our 20th wedding
anniversary. Where better to celebrate
it than in the city where we met?
NEXT MORNING, we leave our Cause-
way Bay hotel and walk toward Wan
Chai, a district two kilometers away.
Walking is the best way to experience
Hong Kong’s colorful sights, sounds
and smells. First we must negotiate
throngs of Saturday shoppers here in
this retail mecca.
We join the sea of people in a wide
pedestrian crossing on Yee Wo Street
that leads us past one of the city’s larg-
est department stores, Sogo, swathed
in posters advertising designer labels.
Young women sporting sleek heels
and luxury handbags—a couple of
them with beribboned apricot poo-
dles tucked under an arm—are a com-
mon sight this morning.
By the time we reach Wan Chai,
we’ve left the brand shoppers behind.
This district is grittier than Causeway
Bay, although its former reputation for
girly bars has somewhat given way to
shiny office towers. At Bowrington
Road market, which spans a couple
of blocks, housewives are haggling
loudly over meat, fish and vegetables.

94 | 12›2017
 Street markets in the Mong Kok neighborhood of Kowloon sell food and much more.
Street markets are a must-see in
Hong Kong, but be prepared for the
smells—meat, seafood, infamously
stinky durian fruit—and a little gore:
I watch a vendor prove to a customer
how fresh his fish is by slicing along
one side, folding the fillet back and
exposing the still-intact beating heart.
Nearby, beneath an overpass, we
encounter a curious sight: an elderly
PHOTO: © RI CHLEGG/GETTY IM AGES
woman chanting while she beats a
paper with a shoe. A customer has
written on the paper the name of a
person who has upset him, we learn.
Afterward, the paper is rubbed with
pork fat and burned. This ritual beats
the “villain” out of the customer’s life.
“Only in Hong Kong,” Jules says,
laughing.
Later we stop to check out the wares
of a gray-haired woman hanging men’s
shirts on the metal grill of an office
building. As Jules peruses the shirts, I
ask her, “Do you feel Hong Kong has
changed under Chinese rule?” She’s
dismissive. “I’m just part of the little
people,” she says. “I only want to make
enough money. I don’t care if Britain
or China is here.”
Other entrepreneurs we encounter
seem to agree it’s business as usual.
Before the handover, many people
here feared Communist China would
curtail the capitalism and human
rights protections Hong Kong enjoyed
under British rule, even though China
promised self-rule—“one country, two
systems”—for 50 years. But, as Chris-
tine Loh, a legislator here before and
after the handover, expressed in an
12›2017 | 95
READER’S DIGEST
email to me, “The degree of freedom
in Hong Kong on a day-to-day basis
remains very high.”
WE’LL HEAR a similar opinion over a
lunch of dim sum—a local Cantonese
specialty—in Kowloon, where we’re
heading now on the Star Ferry. It’s been
chugging across Victoria Harbor since
1888. The trip costs HK$2.70 (29 euro
cents), a bargain in a pricey city. It’s a
short walk to Serenade Chinese Res-
taurant; it’s vast, with huge windows
overlooking the harbor.
There we meet my longtime friend
Junko Watanabe. With her are Ron-
nie and Jennifer Ho, retired teachers
in their late 50s who have just moved
back from Boston to their home city
after 23 years. Over bamboo baskets
of har gau (steamed shrimp) and siu
mai (pork dumplings) and an order
of yi mein (egg noodles, fried), Ronnie
and Jennifer tell us they’re delighted to
be home. “We haven’t noticed many
changes in daily life,” Ronnie says.
Their parents had fled poverty in
China for colonial Hong Kong at a
young age. Ronnie’s father encour-
aged the couple to emigrate before
1997. “Our parents knew China was to
be feared,” says Jennifer. The 1989 Ti-
ananmen Square massacre influenced
their decision to leave.
They returned to Hong Kong to be
back among family. Says Ronnie, “We’re
too old to worry about politics now.”
CLEARLY, HONG KONG is thriving. In
96 | 12›2017
a recent survey of the world’s cities
by human resources consulting firm
Mercer, it ranked sixth for infrastruc-
ture, which includes such criteria as
drinking water and public transit. It
ranked 71st among 231 cities for qual-
ity of life—higher than the 11 other
Chinese cities included.
The outlook for press freedom is
less encouraging: a Reporters With-
out Borders (RWB) survey shows
Hong Kong has slipped from 18th
in 2002 to 73rd today (China ranked
176th.) RWB cites growing difficulty
in covering sensitive stories about
Hong Kong’s government and main-
land China, and finds “extremely dis-
turbing” the purchase of Hong Kong
media by Chinese companies such as
Internet giant Alibaba.
Politically, Hong Kong residents
use their right to protest when they
perceive China to be overreaching.
In late 2014, thousands took to the
streets in a protest dubbed the Um-
brella Movement when Beijing in-
sisted on vetting candidates for chief
executive. China got its way.
Another trigger for protests has
been tourism from mainland China.
Before 1997 most visitors came from
Japan and Taiwan, but when Beijing
relaxed its rules in the early 2000s, the
number of mainland visitors jumped
from about seven million per year
in 2002 to a whopping 43 million by 2016.
For some locals, that’s too many;
they say the visitors are rude and loud.
And they blame mainlanders for the
 Lamma Island is just a half-hour by ferry from Central but a world away.
scarcity of such necessities as baby
formula and medicines.
Indeed, when Jules went to buy
shaving cream, he was mystified to see
drugstore staff unloading countless
boxes of baby formula onto shelves.
Mainlanders snap it up due to tainted
baby formula scares in China. At a 2014
protest in Hong Kong, mainlanders
were denounced as “locusts” eating the
city’s resources. Signs read, “Go Back to
China” and “Reclaim Hong Kong.”
Late one afternoon I meet up with
Mark Sharp, a South China Morning
Post editor and writer since before
the handover, in the seaside town of
PHOTO BY BONNI E MUNDAY
Sai Kung, in the New Territories—the
mostly rural region between Kowloon
and mainland China. Over a beer
ironically named Gweilo, a rude Can-
tonese term for “white person,” he
confirms locals are more outspoken
nowadays. “People worry that as more
mainland Chinese come, Hong Kong
will lose its identity.”
Young people, Sharp says, are espe-
cially vocal. They are Hong Kongers
first: A recent Hong Kong University
survey showed that only 3 percent
of people aged 18-29 identify as Chi-
nese, an all-time low since the surveys
started in 1997; back then, that num-
ber was 17 percent.
Joshua Wong, 20, is the face of the
generation that has known Hong Kong
only as part of China. At age 14, he led
a successful student protest against
mandated “national education”
courses. In his opinion, the courses
were intended to create loyalty to the
Communist regime. “We think that re-
duces freedom of thought,” says Wong.
As leaders of the 2014 Umbrella
Movement, Wong and two others
were jailed last August for six to eight
months for their roles.
12›2017 | 97

Dozens of burning incense coils scent the
air inside Man Mo Temple in Central.
ON A SUNNY MORNING, we hop onto
a ferry bound for Lamma Island. It’s
a 30-minute trip to Yung Shue Wan
village—and a world away. Although
Hong Kong isn’t often associated with
green spaces, there are many, and
Lamma, where we lived, has some of
our favorite hikes. We drop our bags at
our guesthouse and walk for two hours
on paths that wind down toward sandy
beaches and steeply upward again.
At a hilltop pavilion, we buy re-
freshing pineapple slices from an old
woman in a straw hat. From a nearby
path we can see the fishing boats and
stilted seafood restaurants of Sok Kwu
Wan village below. Walking back, we
98 | 12›2017
spot graves set into green slopes that
face the sea for favorable fung shui.
They are tidy. During the Ching Ming
Festival two weeks earlier, families
had swept loved ones’ gravesites and
burned incense for departed spirits.
In Yung Shue Wan, we head to An-
dy’s Seafood Restaurant on Main Street
and find a table with a view of the sun
setting over the sea. It’s a slice of Hong
Kong heaven to dine on grouper with
soy sauce and ginger, and razor clams
in black bean sauce.
BACK ON HONG KONG island, we walk
from the pier into Central and Sheung
Wan. The walk is a few minutes longer
than in the 1990s; the shoreline has
shifted to accommodate new skyscrap-
ers. One thing hasn’t changed: most
high-rises under construction are clad
in traditional scaffolding of bamboo
tied with nylon strips.
We browse antique stores along
Hollywood Road and Cat Street, look-
ing for an anniversary gift to each
other. The symbol for the 20th year is,
PHOTO: © Y EUNG MAN CHUN/SHUTTERSTOCK
fittingly, china, and we find the per-
fect thing: a gold-painted teapot with
wicker handles, featuring the Chinese
character for double-happiness, a wed-
ding symbol. “It’s HK$150,” the shop-
keeper says, about 16 euros. I offer her
HK$120 in cash; it’s a deal.
The wrapped treasure tucked under
Jules’ arm, we pass galleries and, sur-
prisingly, coffee shops with a hipster
vibe: Winston’s, The Cupping Room,
Cafe Deadend. When I lived here, tea

shops were ubiquitous. Stores selling
olive oils, vinegars, cheeses and wines
also exemplify changing tastes; before
1997, we had to search those things out.
This evolution contrasts with Man
Mo Temple, a Taoist and Buddhist
temple dedicated to the gods of lit-
erature (Man) and war (Mo). Built
in 1847, its sloping roof is decorated
with carvings of dragons and human
figures. The quiet, candlelit interior
is scented with burning incense coils
hanging from the ceiling. We watch
worshippers set oranges and candles
on a table, offerings to statues of the
gods placed there.
Soon we rejoin the bustle of Holly-
wood Road.
IT’S HUMID on our final day, and
threatening rain. We have time for a
last lunch. In Sheung Wan, past the
pungently-scented dried-seafood
stalls this district is famous for, we find
a noodle house on Des Voeux Road.
It’s full of chattering office workers. At
the front window, the chef is dropping
fresh noodles into a huge pot of steam-
ing broth.
“Sorry, no English,” says the waitress
as she drops two Chinese-language
menus on the table. No problem; we
point to bowls of noodles the chef has
topped with barbecued pork and Chi-
nese broccoli and hold up two fingers,
then sip on tall glasses of sweet iced
lemon tea while we wait. We copy the
locals: stab at the lemon slices with a
long spoon to squeeze out the juice,
READER’S DIGEST
stir, sip, repeat.
On the street, it’s raining. We sprint
to our hotel, grab our luggage and hail
a cab. “Central Station, please, Airport
Express,” I tell the driver, a man in his
60s. “Oh, you go home?” he asks. He
says he loves showing visitors around.
As we weave through buses, trams
and luxury cars, I point out to Jules an
elderly man wearing a pointed straw
hat riding a rusting bicycle. Tall pro-
pane tanks are strapped to either side,
and he’s negotiating traffic through
the rain. Only in Hong Kong.
At the station, the driver points to
where we can check our bags to the
airport. “Make sure, come back soon!”
he says, waving. “This is world’s best
city!” I couldn’t agree more.
TRAVEL TIPS
LODGING IBIS Hotel, Sheung Wan,
from 85 euros, ibis.com; The Lang-
ham, Tsim Sha Tsui, from 190 euros,
langhamhotels.com
DINING Dim sum at Serenade Chi-
nese Restaurant, Tsim Sha Tsui, and
Maxim’s Palace at City Hall, Central,
from 2.50 euros/basket; Seventh
Son, Wan Chai, Cantonese dishes
Crispy Chicken, Baked Stuffed Crab
Shell, 21 euros each; Tin Lung Heen,
Ritz Carlton, Yau Ma Tei, Iberian bar-
becued pork with honey, 34 euros
INFORMATION:
www.discoverhongkong.com
12›2017 | 99
BONUS READ

Mıracles
R eal
in

Life
100 | 12›2017
LIKE LOVE, THE WORD MIRACLE GETS
overused. We trot it out to describe an
amazing sports play or a particularly
effective detergent. But a genuine
miracle produces something precious
and rare. It raises goose bumps, inspires
awe, and, most of all, touches the heart.
We think these four stories—about
families who discovered joy when they
least expected it—do that and more.
And what better time to celebrate joy
than during the holiday season?

12›2017 | 101
Paramedic Chris Trokey (left)
helped save the life of Dr. Michael
Shannon (right), before
recognizing Dr. Shannon from
his childhood.

102 | 12›2017
 Miracle
in
Real Life

“I Don’t
Know if He
Knows
How Lucky
He Was”
BY LISA MILLER

I T WAS 5:45 A.M. in March

2011, and as pediatrician Dr.
Michael Shannon drove along
California’s Pacific Coast Highway
toward the beach, he could smell
the sea. He was taking a route
he knew well to meet a friend for
their regular Tuesday walk. As he
headed toward Dana Point Har-
bor, a blanket of white suddenly
interrupted his vision. A semi-
truck had pulled onto the road
in front of him. The physician
had no time to react.
“I probably said a few exple-
tives in my mind,” he recalls. “I
remember the wham and the
sound of breaking glass, and
then everything stopped. I was
sitting still.”
Shannon remained con-
scious during the collision. In

PHOTOGRAPH BY AMANDA FRIEDMAN

READER’S DIGEST
the quiet afterward, his first thought
was that he was alive. His second
thought was that he had to get out—
fast. He sensed something burning.
His legs and feet, wedged beneath the
crumpled dashboard, felt hot. But he
was pinned.
Help arrived almost instantly; a
unit from the Orange County Fire
Department was on the scene in less
than two minutes. Four men work on
Engine 29—two are paramedics—and
that morning, they were returning to
their firehouse when they got the call.
The guys were exhausted from work-
ing all night, but the timing was better
than good. They were already in the
truck and ready to go.
MY MIRACLE
Our daughter was $2,500 short for
tuition her freshman year, and we
had no more resources to pay for it.
My husband said a prayer, played
the lottery, and won exactly $2,500.
MARILYN CERNIGLIA CHEW, Ne w Yo rk
Arriving at the scene, paramedic
Chris Trokey could immediately see
how urgent it was. At 30, Trokey had
been on the job for eight years, and
this accident was a nine out of ten
in severity. The whole front end of
the SUV was tucked under the body
of the semi. He could see that the
engine was smoldering—now only a
small red flame like a campfire, but he
104 | 12›2017
knew it could explode within minutes.
The man inside the vehicle appeared
remarkably calm. “He wasn’t freaking
out. He wasn’t yelling,” recalls Trokey.
“He was saying, ‘Get me out of here.’ ”
Meanwhile, Shannon’s lower ex-
tremities were getting hotter. He could
feel the nylon mesh of his running
shoes melting onto his toes. The crew
acted fast. “Someone handed me a fire
extinguisher through the window, and
I think I used another expletive and
said, ‘I need a hose!’” Shannon says.
He was given a fire hose and used it to
put out the flames inside his vehicle.
The firemen doused the engine fire
and called for backup: They needed
stronger tools to pry open the SUV. As
they waited, Trokey phoned Mission
Hospital in Laguna Beach to alert the
medical trauma team. After 20 min-
utes, with a second crew’s help, the
Chevy Suburban was opened with the
Jaws of Life, and Trokey put the man
on a backboard and a gurney within
seconds. As he sat with him in the back
of the ambulance with the siren blar-
ing, Trokey began to meditate on the
crash victim’s name: Michael Shannon.
The paramedic wondered, Could
this be the same man who had saved
his own life 30 years ago, when he was
a preemie and arrived at the very same
ER they were headed to with panicked
parents and a perilously high tempera-
ture? The doctor who slept by Trokey’s
side in the hospital until he was well
enough to go home? As Trokey sat with
Shannon, the feeling of recognition
grew stronger. But he didn’t say any-
thing—not then. “I wanted to focus on
what was going on.”
I
N JUNE 1986, Chris Trokey entered
the world ten weeks early. His fa-
ther, Mike, likes to joke that his son
loves ambulances because he was al-
most born in one. Mike and his wife,
Dee, went to Mission Hospital after her
water broke. There, they were rushed
by ambulance to the hospital at the
University of California Irvine, 25 miles
away. UCI had the region’s only neo-
natal intensive care unit (NICU); their
baby, the Trokeys were informed, had
a 50-50 chance of survival.
Weighing three pounds, two ounces
at birth, the baby could fit in the palm
of Mike’s hand. But Chris was tough,
breathing on his own within hours.
While he was in the NICU, his parents
commuted between Irvine and their
home in Dana Point. During those anx-
ious first weeks, Mike and Dee searched
for a local pediatrician who was skilled
enough to cope with the health prob-
lems that premature babies often face.
Mike worked as an educator in the
Saddleback Valley school district, co-
ordinating programs. As he looked
through student files, he noticed one
name again and again: Dr. Michael
Shannon. When the Trokeys went for
a meeting, they liked Shannon right
away, from his capable manner to his
shoulder-length hair, denim shirt, and
turquoise belt buckle. “He was the type
of guy you could talk to as if he was
your brother,” Dee remembers, “but
you had confidence that he could do
anything.”
After seven weeks, Chris was dis-
charged, and his parents drove to
Shannon’s office so he could check
MY MIRACLE
I was walking to the gas station and
heard crying behind a Dumpster.
I saw a young girl in labor and
helped her deliver triplets.
JAMES OPAL, No r th C aro l in a
the baby out. Chris was fine. However,
within two weeks, he spiked what
Shannon coolly calls “a pretty good-
sized fever”—dangerous for a new-
born but exponentially more so for a
preemie. The Trokeys were in touch
with Shannon as the fever soared, and
the doctor soon suggested the family
meet him at Mission Hospital.
Dee was a wreck. Having already
faced the possibility that her new-
born might not survive and then living
apart from him for nearly two months,
a life-threatening fever felt like the last
straw. At the hospital, Shannon was
waiting for the Trokeys. Utterly calm,
he took the entire family into his care.
There was no infant ICU at Mission at
the time, so “pediatricians took care
of their own intensive problems,” says
Shannon. He took Chris’s blood and
sent it to the lab and did a spinal tap
12›2017 | 105
READER’S DIGEST
to rule out meningitis. Then he put
the infant on an IV antibiotic drip
and had the parents go home to sleep.
Shannon would watch over their son,
he told them. The pediatrician stayed
with Chris for two nights, and on the
third day, the boy went home.
Chris grew up with the family leg-
end of the time that Shannon slept
in the hospital with him until he was
safe. His parents told the story again
and again as the happiest resolution
to the most desperate period of their
lives. Chris continued to be Shannon’s
patient until he was in his teens.
A
FTER THE CAR WRECK, in an
echo of what had happened
30 years before, Chris Trokey stayed by
Shannon’s side in the trauma room for
MY MIRACLE
I landed an airplane with engine
failure that had shaken all but one
bolt out of its engine mount.
GENIE SMITH BERNSTEIN, G e o r g i a
a few minutes. “I asked, ‘Do you re-
member me at all? You stayed with me
when I was really little,’” says Trokey.
Shannon had suffered a perforated
small intestine. He had second- and
third-degree burns on his feet, and part
of a toe had to be amputated. Shards of
glass were embedded in his skin.
Shannon recognized Chris’s name
106 | 12›2017
at once. Although he has treated more
children than he can remember, it’s
the ones who need him most who
stick. Yet if they’d passed each other
on the street, neither man would have
recognized the other: At 72, Shannon
had cut his hair short. And at six feet
three inches tall and 195 pounds,
Chris looked nothing like the fragile
baby he had once been.
The day after Shannon’s surgery,
Trokey and the crew from Engine 29
went to visit Shannon in the ICU. This
was unusual. As firefighters and para-
medics, they save lives as a matter of
course. But this case was different,
because it was such a close call—“I
don’t know if he knows how lucky
he was,” says Trokey—and such a co-
incidence. Both men still marvel at
the connection. Neither Shannon nor
Trokey is a churchgoer, but each says
this feeling—of having someone enter
your life at a critical time and watch
over you until you are well, of giving a
gift without expectations and then get-
ting it back when you need it most—
has given him faith in a higher power.
Shannon and Trokey are busy peo-
ple—Shannon sees patients four days
a week, and Trokey works three 24-
hour shifts a week. But every year on
the anniversary of the car accident,
the two men meet for a meal. And in
2015, Trokey himself became the fa-
ther of a baby boy. His name is Porter,
and he has had no major health prob-
lems so far. Dr. Michael Shannon is
his pediatrician.
 Reunited on the
job: sisters Meagan
Hughes (left) and
Holly O’Brien
Miracle
in
Real Life

another Korean American nurse

“I Knew working on the same floor—and the

same shift—at Doctors Hospital of

She Was
Sarasota. “You should talk to her,”
the patient told O’Brien, according to

Out There”
the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “Maybe
you’re from the same town.”
After O’Brien and Hughes finally
met, they did begin to notice parallels
BY MARC PEYSER

H
OLLY O’BRIEN’S patient was
just being nice. She prob-
ably didn’t realize that South Korea
MI CHELLE BRUZZ ESE
in their lives. They were both certified
nursing assistants. They were both
orphans who had been adopted by
American families. And their reasons
for ending up at the orphanage were

has more than 50 million people or
that there are over 1.7 million Korean
Americans living in the United States.
She just thought it was interesting that
O’Brien didn’t know Meagan Hughes,
the same: abandonment. “So I said to
her, ‘I know this is crazy, but what is
your last name in Korean?’” recalls
Hughes, now 45. “And as soon as
she told me Shin, I said, ‘No way.

12›2017 | 107
READER’S DIGEST
That’s my [Korean] last name too.’”
Suddenly, the coincidences seemed
more than merely interesting. In fact,
for years, O’Brien, 47, sensed that she’d
had a half sister back in Korea. Though
her mother had disappeared when she
was an infant and she was only five
when her father was killed by a train,
she had a memory of her and her fa-
ther living, briefly, with his second wife
and a baby girl. O’Brien was ultimately
adopted by a loving family from Alex-
andria, Virginia, but her Korean child-
hood never left her. She remembers
MY MIRACLE
My autistic son graduated from
college with a degree in Bible
ministry. KEN DILLMAN, Te x a s
one night, when she was about nine
years old, waking up from a dream and
screaming, “My daddy died. I have a
sister. We need to find her.” O’Brien’s
adoptive family contacted the orphan-
age in Korea for information, but there
was no record of a sibling.
Hughes wasn’t haunted by lingering
memories; instead, she was haunted
because she didn’t have any. Adopted
when she was four by a family in Kings-
ton, New York, she couldn’t remember
either of her biological parents. “My
whole life has been a question in my
mind, and an emptiness,” she says.
Now the coincidence of meeting
O’Brien offered the chance to fill in the
108 | 12›2017
blanks. A year ago, the nurses decided
to take at-home DNA tests and mailed
the samples away to be analyzed. Less
than two weeks later, O’Brien got an
e-mail. Their DNA matched—they were
half sisters. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, is
this really happening?” says Hughes.
O’Brien was shocked but also relieved.
“In my heart, I knew,” she says. “I knew
she was out there somewhere.” After
more than 7,500 miles and four long
decades, O’Brien had finally found the
missing piece of her past, working just
a few feet away from her.
T ODAY, THE SISTERS wear spe-
cial necklaces, each with a
heart-shaped charm, as a symbol of
their bond. “I got her the silver one,
and I got the gold one for myself,” says
O’Brien. “She will always be my heart.”
Divorced twice and remarried with
no children of her own, O’Brien has
found the reunion with her younger
sister to be especially sweet. In an in-
stant, she has become an aunt to
Hughes’s two daughters. As much as
she loves the family that raised her in
Virginia—O’Brien has eight adoptive
brothers and sisters—making a bio-
logical connection at this stage of her
life has been extraordinary. “I have this
very strong belief that God must be—”
For a moment, her tears overwhelm
her words, as if washing away the sis-
ters’ 40-year separation. “Like, what-
ever I’ve done, I must have done
something good in my life.”
 Finally, mother
and child:
Jeanne Kerr (left)
and the author

Miracle
in
Real Life
“It’s Regina Louise. I think we
may’ve met a—”

“I Want to “I don’t believe so,” she said. The

line went dead.

Make
I crossed out another Jeanne on
my long list. The last time I’d seen the

You My
Jeanne I was looking for was in 1977,
when I was 15. That day, I’d stood in a
juvenile courtroom prepared to speak

Daughter” about what it would mean to me for

Jeanne Kerr, my beloved counselor
from the Edgar Children’s Shelter in
BY R E G I N A LO UISE Martinez, California, to adopt me.
COURTESY REGINA LOUI SE

F R OM NAR R ATIV E . LY I’d met Jeanne when I’d arrived at

“M
the shelter on May 1, 1975—a day
before I turned 13. I was confused by
AY I S P E A K W I T H her excitement regarding my pending
Jeanne Kerr?” I said, birthday. Then came balloons, cake,
crossing my fingers. and strangers singing to me as if I were
“Who’s asking?” the voice cracked. a big deal. In no time, it felt good to be

12›2017 | 109
READER’S DIGEST
where Jeanne was. I’d grown up with-
out a lick of kin, so I had taken my cues
from Donna Reed and June Cleaver. I
loved how they treated children, their
soft-spoken ways. I prayed to meet
someone like them who could see I
was worth the trouble I was born into.
In court, my social worker pre-
sented evidence of my “escalating”
behaviors: running away, telling lies,
sabotaging foster care placements so I
could return to the shelter, to Jeanne.
“It’s unnatural, Your Honor, how
much she loves this woman,” she said.
The judge agreed, and Jeanne’s peti-
tion to adopt was denied. I believe my
social worker objected because Jeanne
was white and I was black. The National
Association of Black Social Workers
MY MIRACLE
I walked into the room, and my
mother, who had dementia, raised
her arm, waved, and said, “Hi,
Karen,” with her eyes shining bright!
KAREN RASMUSSEN, C onn e cti cu t
had issued a statement against trans-
racial adoption, seeing it as an attack on
black families. I was put in a residential
treatment center for severely emotion-
ally disturbed girls. From there, I’d go
through 30 placements before land-
ing in a group home in San Francisco.
I stayed there until the age of eman-
cipation, after which I flailed through
life. Then I became a mother, and
110 | 12›2017
everything changed. Now I had some-
one else to love and to think about.
B
Y 2002, I CO-OWNED and oper-
ated two hair salons, and my
teenage son was a thriving scholar-
athlete. I decided to write a book
about my life from ages 13 to 15, a
journey that included meeting Jeanne
and losing her.
“Your memoir claims abuse and ne-
glect, so you need someone to verify
what you’ve written,” my editor said.
I had two weeks to locate that person.
My writing coach suggested I find
Jeanne. I couldn’t bear to tell her that
I’d spent years ordering phone books
from Nova Scotia to Hawaii, the num-
ber of times I’d been hung up on, the
dead ends I’d followed. But now I
could scour the Internet, and I began
searching on countless sites. Marriage
license? Nothing. Certificate of birth
of child? Nothing. Death certificate?
Hesitantly, I punched in her name.
That, too, came back with nothing.
Had I made Jeanne up? But there
was the blue corduroy dress she’d
hand-sewn for me, with rainbows in
my favorite colors. I’d lost it many years
ago. There was the way she called me
“sweetheart” or “punkin,” the way she
smelled of Cream of Wheat, warmed
milk, vanilla, and brown sugar.
Then I remembered that, as a child, I
had been warned that everything I said
and did was put in a file so anyone who
wanted to could learn what an awful
person I was. I called the county and
asked for my file. When the package
arrived, I nuzzled it to my bosom like
it was a newborn. Inside was a stack
of papers filled with legal jargon, in-
cident reports, and letters from one
institutional director to another about
my need to be “terminated.” But there
was no road map to Jeanne.
With two days left to corroborate
my story, I asked Jules, a friend and
correspondent at a magazine that
had access to research databases,
for help. My deadline passed before
she finished her search, so I changed
the names of my characters. “Jeanne
Kerr” became “Claire Kennedy.”
J
ULES SENT ME the search results
a week later: She had an address!
I wrote Jeanne a letter and sealed it
with a kiss in red lipstick. The day be-
fore I left on my book tour, I received
an envelope in the mail—it was my
letter, stamped with the words Ad-
dressee Unknown.
In Los Angeles, I was interviewed by
radio talk show host Tavis Smiley. He
asked: “You have it all: You’re a spokes-
person for foster care, have a thriving
salon business, a well-adjusted child.
What more would you like?”
I replied without hesitating. “Some-
one to say they are proud of me.”
Afterward, back in my hotel room, I
checked my e-mail and saw a message
with the subject line: “I am so proud
of you, sweetheart!”
My heart stopped. I opened the
e-mail, and it was from Jeanne. My
breath caught in my throat. Was some-
one playing a joke on me? Only later
I’d learn that a former coworker of hers
had read an article about my book in
which the reporter revealed the real
MY MIRACLE
We were so poor, we had not
planned to have Christmas that
year. Then a stranger dropped off
the makings for Christmas dinner.
I still don’t know who did it!
JANET WILT, Fl o r i d a
name of Claire Kennedy, and the ex-
colleague told Jeanne, “Your Regina is
looking for you.”
In her e-mail, Jeanne wrote, “Please
reach out to me once your tour is
done. I don’t want to be a bother.” I
couldn’t wait—I immediately dialed
the number she had given.
“Hello?” The voice at the other end
sounded hushed, just as I remem-
bered Jeanne’s timbre; she had a
particular way of saying “hello” that
softened me from the inside out.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” I said
through my absolute bewilderment.
“I never stopped thinking of you.”
“You were my first child,” she told
me. “I never stopped loving you.” Her
words reverberated, and all I could do
was listen. “They said I was the wrong
color and that I wasn’t allowed to
12›2017 | 111
READER’S DIGEST
The author (center),
Jeanne Kerr (arms raised),
and family celebrate in court.
love you.” Jeanne continued. “I have
something I want to give you. It is your
birthright.”
I held my breath.
“I want to make you my daughter.”
From the moment I had lost Jeanne,
I had known she was the mother I
was meant to have in this life. I went
on to live as if she’d never left, as if
she were there to guide my actions.
I believed that one day I’d have the
chance to tell her “thank you.” On the
phone with her, I knew my deepest
wish was on the verge of coming true.
Three weeks later, I sat for six hours
at LaGuardia Airport in New York
City, waiting out a storm that had
delayed Jeanne’s plane. I paced and
smoothed my skirt. Finally, a woman
rushed toward me, her long gray-
white ponytail swinging from beneath
a baseball cap. She wore an oversize
sweater splattered with gigantic mul-
ticolored peonies, green polka-dot
capri pants, and kitty-cat ankle socks
paired with a well-worn pair of run-
ning shoes. I looked at her, head tilted
NARRATIVELY (MAY 25, 2016), COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY REGINA LOUISE, NARRATIVE.LY.
112 | 12›2017
like a curious puppy. I
would not have worn
those pieces together
if God himself had
ordered me to, and I
flushed with morti-
fication. It was then
that I knew I was not
only a daughter but
her daughter. I earned
a full adolescenthood
of stripes in that one moment. It had
been nearly three decades since I had
felt her fingertips lift my chin through
the weight of my grief of having to
leave her, the only person who’d ever
told me “I love you.”
“Hi ... Mommy,” I said. I felt elec-
trified saying the word for the first
time. My entire life I had guarded it,
my body a safe-deposit box, holding
it until I could give it its rightful place.
I
N NOVEMBER 2003, I stood in the
same juvenile courtroom in Cali-
fornia where Jeanne’s adoption re-
quest had been denied in 1977. I was
41, and I was with my son; Jeanne, her
husband, and her son; and my partner,
Stevie Anne, and her family. After the
judge swore me and Jeanne to honor
COURTESY REGINA LOUI SE
and love each other as mother and
daughter for the rest of our lives, I
turned to Jeanne, cupped my hand
around her ear, and whispered,
“Thank you—Mommy—for loving me
when no one else could.”

Miracle
in
Real Life
“This Cat Is
Meant to
Be Here”
O
BY ASHLEY LEWIS
N A CHILLY MARCH evening
in 2014 in Lucedale, Missis-
sippi, Ann Bosche, then 53, stood on
her front steps while her mini dachs-
hund, Gracie, took a bathroom break.
Gracie sniffed an unwelcome visitor
under the camellia bush and barked.
Ann bent and saw a pair of green eyes.
“Hello, there,” Ann said, and heard
a meow in reply. Ann, who had two
resident cats, Bosco and Junior, went
inside. She returned with a bowl of cat
food and slid it beneath the bush.
The next night, the cat returned.
Ann fed him again, moving the bowl
closer to the house. After a week,
the mystery cat showed himself. He
was long-haired, with a plume of tail
punctuated by a white tip. Ann called
COURTESY ANN BOS CHE
him Mr. Fancy, or Fancy for short.
Soon, Mr. Fancy was strutting in
and out of the cat door. However,
Ann’s husband, Gene, argued that
Fancy should find a new home. “We
don’t need another mouth to feed,
READER’S DIGEST
Mr. Fancy,
home at last
and vet bills are expensive,” he said.
Reluctantly, Ann agreed.
The drive to the shelter was heart-
breaking. Ann cried. Fancy cried. She
consoled herself by thinking, “He’s so
beautiful and lovable. Somebody will
want him.”
A month later, Ann woke to the
sound of Gene’s voice. She went to
see which animal he was talking to—
and saw a white-tipped tail. A thinner
Fancy ran across the room to her.
When she asked the shelter what
had happened, she learned that Fancy
had escaped 20 minutes after she had
left, when a worker opened the cage to
feed him. Somehow, over the next
month, he’d navigated the three
miles—traversing railroad tracks, busy
streets, and sketchy neighborhoods—
back to the Bosches. “This cat is
meant to be here,” Ann says. Even
Gene agrees. “Whatever time I have
with Fancy,” Ann says, “they’re going
to be the best years of his life.”
12›2017 | 113
 Brainteasers
Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles and mind stretchers,
then check your answers on page 120.

BUBBLE MATH
(Moderately difficult)
Assign a whole number
11 between one and seven
to each of the seven
7 bubbles. Each number
14 6 occurs once. The sums
of some of the numbers
10 are revealed in the areas

(BUBBLE MATH) RODERI CK KIM BALL; ( POTATO BI NS ) F RASER SI M PSON

where their bubbles
overlap. Can you figure
out which number goes
in each bubble?

POTATO BINS
(Easy)
There are 100 potatoes spread
over three bins in a grocery store.
A total of 35 potatoes
are in bins A and B.
A total of 75 potatoes
A C
are in bins B and C.
B
How many potatoes
are in each bin?

114 | 12›2017
 1…100
COUNTING DIGITS (Easy)
How many times does
the digit 5 appear in the
numbers from 1 to 100?

MATCH PLAY
(Difficult)
The grid contains 4 5 5 3 2 3 4
matches of different
sizes, any of which 3
may be completely
unburned, partially
burned or completely 4
burned. Matches
burn from the head 4
(COUNTING DIGITS; LOST TIME) MARCEL DANESI; (MATCH PLAY) FRASER SIMPSON

(the red end) to the

tail without skipping
segments. The num- 5
bers outside the grid
indicate the number 2
of burned segments
in the correspond-
ing row or column. 3
Can you shade in
the burned seg- 5
ments to “match”
the numbers?

LOST TIME (Moderately difficult)

Suzanne and Pemma made arrangements to
meet at a café at 2:00 p.m. Suzanne thinks
her watch is 25 minutes fast, although it is
actually 10 minutes slow. Pemma thinks her
watch is 10 minutes slow, while it is actually
five minutes fast. What will happen if they
both aim to arrive exactly on time?

12›2017 | 115
 Trivia Quiz
BY PAUL PAQUET

1. What mountainous home of mytho- 8. Dee Snider wrote “The Magic of

logical gods is found on the border Christmas Day” for Céline Dion.
between Greece and Macedonia? He is best known as the singer for
what heavy metal band?
2. Some fans objected to whose cast-
ing in The Hunger Games, complain- 9. Found in the Horn, which is the
ing that she wasn’t emaciated enough only country in Africa whose flag
to be from the very hungry District 12? contains no red, green or black?
3. The modern version of what 10. In 1952, in Superman #76, the Man
“angelic” stringed instrument, found of Steel teamed up for the first time
in many orchestras, has seven pedals? with what other iconic superhero?
4. What fictional race eats seven 11. One of Europe’s most fabled soccer
meals a day, including second break- teams is PSG, who play in which city?
fast, elevenses and afternoon tea?
13. Amino acids are found in which
5. Which capital’s Old City is divided kind of macronutrient: carbohy-
into Jewish, Armenian, Christian and drates, proteins or fats?
Muslim quarters?
12. What actor spoke
6. Keke Rosberg won the only 16 lines in the star-
Formula One World ring role of Mad Max 2?
Championship for
14. The world has two
Finland. His son, Nico,
cities that are named
is a dual citizen who races
London and situated
for which country? 15. In 1894, what
notable inventor made on a river called the
7. What was the first city to the first-ever cat video Thames. One is in the
be awarded both the Sum- when he filmed two U.K. and the other is
mer and Winter Olympics? cats in a boxing ring? in which country?
ISTOCKP HOTO

10. Batman. 11. Paris. 12. Mel Gibson. 13. Proteins. 14. Canada. 15. Thomas Edison.
The Lord of the Rings. 5. Jerusalem. 6. Germany. 7. Beijing. 8. Twisted Sister. 9. Somalia.
ANSWERS: 1. Mount Olympus. 2. Jennifer Lawrence. 3. The harp. 4. Hobbits, from

116 | 12›2017
 IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR

Word Power
Do you ever toss off an impressive-sounding word at a cocktail party
only to wonder: Did I get that right? The terms in this month’s quiz,
inspired by the book You’re Saying It Wrong by Ross and Kathryn Petras,
will make you sound like the smartest person in the room—if your
pronunciation is correct. See the next page for answers.
BY EMILY COX & HENRY RATHVON

1. detritus n.—A: subtracted 8. quay n.—A: wharf. B: small

amount. B: debris. C: falsified
claim.
2. prerogative n.—A: educated
guess. B: first choice. C: special
right.
3. segue v.—A: transition.
B: completely surround. C: begin
a court case.
4. hegemony n.—A: domination.
B: smooth blend. C: large
family.
5. dais n.—A: group leader.
B: garden fountain. C: raised
platform.
6. kefir n.—A: verbal skirmish.
B: fermented milk. C: painting
technique.
7. peremptory adj.—A: allowing
no disagreement. B: coming first.
C: walking quickly.
island. C: dram of brandy.
9. machination n.—A: study
of robotics. B: talkativeness.
C: scheme.
10. slough n.—A: soft breeze.
B: heavy club. C: swamp.
11. spurious adj.—A: hasty.
B: fake. C: livid.
12. nuptial adj.—A: just starting.
B: relating to marriage. C: present
during all seasons.
13. coxswain n.—A: innkeeper.
B: secret lover. C: sailor in
charge.
14. geoduck n.—A: earth tremor.
B: wooden footstool. C: large
Pacific clam.
15. plethora n.—A: person not
of noble rank. B: abundance.
C: spiritual journey.

12›2017 | 117
READER’S DIGEST

Answers
1. detritus (dih-'try-tuss)—[B] debris. 9. machination (ma-kuh-'nay-
People on our block are still picking shun)—[C] scheme. Despite all his
up detritus from Billy’s birthday bash. machinations, Wile E. Coyote can’t
catch Road Runner.
2. prerogative (prih-'rah-guh-tiv)—
[C] special right. If Dad wants to 10. slough (sloo)—[C] swamp. The
regift his dinosaur tie, that’s his slough is home to a variety of species,
prerogative. including salmon, ducks, and otters.
3. segue ('sehg-way)—[A] transition. 11. spurious ('spyuhr-ee-us)—
But enough about you; let’s segue to [B] fake. So that UFO sighting in Cen-
the topic of snakes. tral Park turned out to be spurious?
4. hegemony (hih-'jeh-muh-nee)— 12. nuptial ('nuhp-shuhl)—[B] relat-
[A] domination. Brian has complete ing to marriage. I’ve attached a string
hegemony over this Monopoly board. of tin cans to the nuptial sedan.
5. dais ('day-iss)—[C] raised 13. coxswain ('kahk-suhn)—
platform. The crowd threw tomatoes [C] sailor in charge. It’s traditional
at the dais as the mayor began her for a winning crew to toss its coxswain
press conference. overboard.
6. kefir (keh-'feer)—[B] fermented 14. geoduck ('goo-ee-duhk)—
milk. Beth always eats the same [C] large Pacific clam. A geoduck
breakfast: kefir mixed with nuts can weigh over ten pounds—and
and fruit. live for more than
DULL AS WHICH 150 years!
7. peremptory
(puh-'remp-tuh- WATER? 15. plethora
ree)—[A] allowing People often say a boring ('pleh-thuh-ruh)—
no disagreement. thing is as dull as dishwater. [B] abundance.
But before the phrase was
“I am not going Joe claims a
misspoken, it was actually
to bed!” the as dull as ditchwater. Most plethora of
toddler yelled in a dictionaries now accept proof that Bigfoot
peremptory tone. either, but here are a few exists.
8. quay (kee)—[A] phrases that are just plain
wrong: butt naked (for buck VOCABULARY
wharf. Passengers
naked), hare’s breath (for RATINGS
waiting on the hair’s breadth), and road to 9 & below: mumbling
quay prepared to hoe (for row to hoe). 10–12: well-spoken
board the ferry. 13–15: eloquent

118 | 12›2017
 ALL IN

A Day’s Work
DAVID BORCHART/THE NEW YORKER COLLECTION/© CONDÉ NAST

“Let’s look at the projected earnings for next quarter.”

THE MOTHER OF one of my high MOST OF OUR MUSIC store custom-

school students sent me this note:
“My daughter will be absent from
September 27 to October 3. She is
going on an educational trip to the
Holy Land, where she will learn
history and geography.”
I called the parent and said,
“Wow, what an opportunity for your
daughter. The Holy Land! You’re
traveling to Israel?”
“No,” she responded. “Disney
World.” TIM MCROBERTS, D a n v i l l e , In d i a n a
ers have a story about their old
vinyl collection. Once, a man asked
how much a record cost. My
coworker quoted him the price,
then added, “But there’s a surcharge
if we have to listen to how your
mother made you throw out all your
old vinyl records.”
LINDA NEUKRUG, Wa l n u t C r e e k , C a l i f o r n i a
THESE BIZARRE excerpts from
medical charts will make you think

12›2017 | 119
READER’S DIGEST

twice about getting sick:

Brainteasers: Answers
■ Patient will need rehab upon BUBBLE MATH
disposal.
■ Patient did, in fact, have a left
4 6
lower extremity.
■ Patient’s height is 1 foot & 79
inches. 11

■ He remained in stale condition. 5 7 2 3

14 6
■ He is allergic to wives.
10
■ Her mood was 3 x 9 = 27 plus 1 is 28.
Source: gigglemed.com 7 1

MY BOSS, who lives in a pre–Civil

War home, mentioned to her friend POTATO BINS
that she didn’t use city water. Instead, 25 potatoes in A, 10 potatoes in B
when it rained, the water on the and 65 potatoes in C.
roof drained into gutters, which COUNTING DIGITS
led to a cistern. “What do you do Twenty times. The digit 5 appears
if there’s a drought?” her friend 10 times as a last digit (5, 15, 25 ...
asked. 95) and 10 times as a first digit
“I call a water-hauling company (50, 51, 52 ... 59).
to bring me water,” she said.
The friend looked perplexed. MATCH PLAY
“How do they get the water from the
truck onto the roof?”
CHRISTY ROLF, E r l a n g e r, Ke n t u c k y

WHILE I WAS WORKING as a store

Santa, a boy asked me for an electric
train set. “If you get your train,” I
told him, “your dad is going to
want to play with it too. Is that all
right?”
The boy became very quiet. So,
moving the conversation along, LOST TIME
I asked, “What else would you like Pemma will arrive at 1:45 p.m.,
Santa to bring you?” 15 minutes ahead of time. Suzanne
He promptly replied, “Another will be 35 minutes late.
train.” From guy-sports.com

120 | 12›2017
 Next Month
COMING IN THE JANUARY ISSUE

The Healing
Power of You
Science is showing
how placebos
actually bring healing
and ease pain.

7 Power Foods The Killer The Trees

in Your Pantry Next Door Are Talking
PHOTO: © SHUTTERSTOCK

No need to chase after My elderly neighbor An ancient community

the latest fads. The best liked to chat. Then of trees in Germany
health foods are the FBI told me he is changing how
already in your pantry. was a notorious killer. we look at nature.

T H E NE X T I SS UE W I L L B E P U B L I S H E D JA N UARY 1, 2 018

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122
|
12›2017
Last Laugh

ILLUSTRATION BY MIROSLAV BARTÁK