The book arrived, unexpectedly, in the mail. Tucked between the dust jacket and the cover was a handwritten note: “This was J’s last writing—pulled together last summer during her good moments. I know she’d like you to have this copy in memory of better days.” It was signed, simply, “M.”
The book was Jessamyn West’s final novel, “The State of Stony Lonesome.” West, a novelist and screenwriter best known as the author of “The Friendly Persuasion,” was a friend and a mentor. She died, following a long illness, not long after completing the book. Although I knew her readers had one last book to look forward to, I didn’t know when it was to be published, and I certainly didn’t expect an advance copy. But there it was, sent by her widower, Harry Maxwell MacPherson (M). I was extraordinarily moved to receive it.
I first met Jessamyn eight years earlier. I had read “The Massacre at Fall Creek,” which is a historical novel based on an actual trial in which white men who had killed Native Americans stood trial for murder for the first time. The book is remarkable, and helped me to understand in new ways the ambiguities of life, and that what’s right and wrong is not fixed in time. I wrote to tell her how much I treasured the book. Although she had published a dozen books and was an accomplished screenwriter, she wrote a generous note suggesting that as we were both aspiring writers perhaps we might meet at an upcoming lecture she was to give and talk about writing.
I was thrilled to receive such an invitation, so we met and talked about writing and other things. It was the beginning of a remarkable friendship in which she was very giving of her time, talent and wisdom. I learned a lot from her, but perhaps the most valuable lessons were to live life to its fullest and to commit totally to one’s passions. Writing was her passion, and I can’t imagine the joy of putting pen to paper being denied her.
Yet that’s precisely what happens all too often in the workplace:Committed, passionate, skilled employees lose their jobs after being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Working Woman and Amgen (a biotechnology firm) revealed that employees with cancer are five times more likely to be laid off or fired than other people. An incredible 7 percent of cancer patients lose their jobs, and still others are stripped of important components of their jobs. Fear of high medical costs is probably one reason for firing these people, but ignorance is another. For example, the survey showed that 85 percent of supervisors believed that patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer from fatigue, but 58 percent of patients actually experienced it.
The saddest finding of the survey is that 81 percent of cancer survivors said their jobs helped them maintain emotional stability during treatment. What does anyone gain by taking such support from people? And beyond the emotional loss, it doesn’t take much to see that real contributions also are lost when people with illnesses are fired or even when they don’t get help navigating the benefits maze or don’t have the sense that they’re valued.
I’m grateful to have Jessamyn’s last book. The world would be a diminished place without it, and without Spencer Tracy and Henry Fonda’s last films, George Gershwin’s last songs, Mondrian’s last painting and so much other work done while fighting a life-threatening illness. In each case, the decision to keep working was theirs to make. Imagine what we lose when that decision is denied anyone.
Workforce, May 1997, Vol. 76, No. 5, p. 4.