Since 1989
WINGATE & WINGATE, WRITERS
Isolation and Illness
We fit the stereotype, the déformation professionelle, of writers.
We keep our distance. Our minds are usually somewhere else. We rarely attend social events. We are close to our families. We stay as close to the Church as our health permits.
We invite our friends, clients, and community to consider us semi-invalids. Many invitations we would like to accept must be declined if we are to be effective.
Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) is no laughing matter. It came over us both around the time of our marriage (1985). We did not suspect that our energy levels had been drastically and permanently lowered. We spent more than five years assuming that our frustrations had obvious causes and could be overcome. We trusted that what had always worked for us would continue to work for us.
Again and again, our marriage was harmed, our finances were distorted, and everyone was bewildered. (While all this was going on, we were both in graduate school and writing books. We were too ignorant to know that we “couldn’t possibly.”)
In October 1990 we learned that we had been wasting water in a desert without noticing our thirst.
We no longer have an office separate from our residence. For the sake of better design, we moved to a very small house. Climbing stairs, vacuuming rugs, washing dishes—these can never again be routine activities.
We must arrange situations to meet our energy levels.
You really don’t want a list of Anne’s medical troubles and treatments.
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