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Ad Libitum |17 June 2014

Family History

Jack Coulehan, MD, MPH

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On Sundays before dinner,
Aunt Mary, whose breast hadn't
turned cancerous yet, insisted
I climb to my grandmother's room.
In the stairwell carnivorous vines
that grew in the wallpaper
between rows of bloodstained daggers
terrified me. The old woman's
camphorous sick room smothered
the glow from her bedside lamp
as I walked in. In a lumpy
yellow voice, she demanded
I step closer and put my lips
to her forehead. After dinner,
the aunts propped up her body
with pillows. We circled the bed
and recited the Five Sorrowful
Mysteries of the rosary.
Beneath her repulsiveness, I felt
a dark current—whispers
and glances, my father's night trip
to Chicago for Laetrile,
tense arguments in the kitchen.
I couldn't help wondering
which of the mansions God had made
for the righteous in heaven,
my grandmother would live in.
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Coulehan J. Family History. Ann Intern Med. ;160:863. doi: 10.7326/M14-0088

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2014;160(12):863.

DOI: 10.7326/M14-0088

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