A Novel of Family, Medicine and Ethiopia

"Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese was recommended to me by a friend in Cincinnati (though she's still reading it). It is a very long book and as I began it I wasn't sure I was going to like it. Well, it's one of those books that grows on you. There are a considerable number of characters and the author makes sure you understand them before getting on with the main story. There's Sister Mary Joseph Praise - an Indian nun serving in Ethiopia, though that's not where she originally sets out for. And Thomas Stone - an English doctor who also ends up at a hospital in Addis Abba. Dr. Kalpana Hemlatha (called Hema) is a gynecologist from Madras, India and Dr. Abhi Ghosh (called Ghosh) is an internist also from Madras, both of whom end up at the Missing Hospital where Stone and Sister Mary find themselves. The author tells their background stories as the birth of twin boys takes place - the children of Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Thomas Stone. You never find out what Sister Mary thinks of this because she dies as her sons are removed by C - section. As for their father, he is stunned and disappears from their lives immediately. Hema and Ghosh marry and raise the twins as their own. The rest of the book is the saga of their lives as told by one of the twins, Marion.

By reading this book I learned about Ethiopia and the political turmoil there in the 60s and 70s. I learned about medicine, diseases, and the human anatomy - both twins go on to be doctors following in Hema's and Ghosh's footsteps. The author is a doctor and writes accurately I'm sure as he describes procedures and ailments.

Finally this novel is of family. The one created once the twins are taken by Hema as her own. By Ghosh as he marries Hema and becomes their father. It extends to their servants like Rosina, their nanny and her daughter Genet who is raised like a sister to the twins. There's Matron, the head of the Missing Hospital who is like a grandmother and Gebrew the gatekeeper and priest and Almaz, the cook, who are like an uncle and aunt. Though no one is related by blood they are a family nevertheless.

Do you wonder what happened to Thomas Stone? He does reappear, but I can't tell you more than that.

My Loft

Since I've been retired I've been enjoying the loft above our mechanical room especially in the winter time when it's toasty warm. I like sitting there in the afternoon to read and nap.

The idea came to me that I could put a work desk up there and move my sewing machine there or use the space for other crafts - away from the computer! Originally the plan was to build a desk but when we searched for the studs we decided it would be simpler to buy something. Ikea had the perfect set up.

Here's a tour. First, I climb to the loft on alternating tread stairs - more like a sloped ladder but very easy once you get used to it. The stairs start in the laundry room, the garage door is to the right there with my magnet collection.
Once at the top there's a door immediately to the right that goes into the attic. It's to the left in the picture below but not pictured.

At the top of the stairs is a comfy chair, small lamp table, and a footstool (which needs a better fitting pillow).

To the right is this cabinet moved here to make room for the desk. Mostly it stores blow up mattresses which we use in this loft for over flow sleeping beds.

To the right again is this alcove that the desk fits into perfectly. The drawers are on casters and can be rolled out if I need to.

This is the view when I sit in the chair to read. I look out over the front door and beyond into the woods.

I know I will enjoy this space for many years to come.

Wren Update

Saturday the wren continued to enter the porch and I had to open the porch door to get it out.

Sunday morning I watched it outside the screen near the floor of the porch. It then flew up to one of the upper beams and before long it was in. Again!

Dan got out the step ladder Sunday afternoon to see if he could find the spot where the wren was coming in. At the highest point which he reached only by stepping on to the horizontal beams he was rewarded for his effort by discovering a small gap in the netting. The wren could push its way in at that point but not go back out. Dan took a rag and stuffed it in the hole. No wren since then, thank goodness!

A Very Trying Wren

Can you see that tail in the photo above? It's a wren that has been in my screened porch three times today. I've just let it out for the third time as I write this. It was has been a day of dealing with wrens.

This morning I heard a bird singing. I thought it was outside but then I thought maybe in the attic. When I went into the garage I thought I heard the rustle of something: bird or mouse? When I returned from errands an hour later I heard it again and thought I'd seen a flash of something.

Our attic is over top one side of the garage and there's space for a bird to get from one to the other. I left the garage door open and went to the attic but no sign of a bird. Later in the afternoon I was sitting in the loft where the door to the attic is, and heard rustling. I went down and opened the garage door. Then went back up and entered the attic. Sure enough a bird was there, a wren in fact. Too curious for its own good, I bet it got into the garage on Thursday when we were out shoveling snow.

I tried opening the small windows up there but it kept flying back and forth. Finally it went down so I knew it had gone to the garage. I closed the window and checked and no bird was in the garage. It had flown. Good.

Two hours later sitting here at my desk I looked up because of movement that caught my eye. A wren in the screened porch. How can that be?
Our porch has a very high ceiling with lots of beams. I have never had anything besides a few bees and stink bugs get in before. I opened up the door and waited by the window. The wren finally made its way out.


This critter was also making a racket on my beams but not in the porch. He was on one over the deck. Not sure what he was up to.

Not a half an hour later, movement again in the screened porch. The wren had gotten in again! This time I decided maybe it was coming through the hole we have drilled in the floor for the extension cord for the pond pump. To come up through that hole would require going under the porch decking for 10 feet but I don't know where else it could come in. Again the porch door left ajar and the wren left. My other thought was that maybe it was the spouse of the first and they'd both been in. No, I'd have seen two at a time.

Dusk was rapidly approaching when the wren showed up a third time. Now I think there must be a place where the screening is loose and it pushes its way in but can't go out the same way. Where? I don't know. I just hope that it forgets over night that there are tasty spiders in my screened porch and I won't have this problem tomorrow.