From Psychology Today: “Claire Sylvia was an accomplished dancer when, at the age of 45, she was diagnosed with a rare incurable condition known as primary pulmonary hypertension. The only effective treatment for severe PPH is a heart-lung transplant. Claire’s transplant was unique not just because she was the first person in New England to undergo such an operation, but also because of the changes that occurred following her surgery. She developed a new taste for foods she did not like before receiving her new organs. Once she was allowed to drive, she headed to Kentucky Fried Chicken to satisfy her craving for chicken nuggets, which made no sense to her because she never ate fast food before her transplant. She also noticed that she no longer felt lonely, and felt more independent. She was more confident, assertive.”
The New York real estate queen and the secret she couldn’t keep hidden
From the New York Times: “Alice Mason was throwing one of her black-tie dinner parties. For years, she’d been hosting events that New York City’s social pages fawned over, but she didn’t expect that this one would disrupt a secret she’d kept for much of her life.A Manhattan real estate agent to the elite, Alice typically held six dinner parties a year, almost always with 56 attendees — half women, half men. Her guests, as one socialite put it, were “the A-list of A-lists”: Barbara Walters, Bill Clinton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Alan Greenspan, Norman Mailer, Estée Lauder, Mary Tyler Moore, Jimmy Carter. This party, circa 1990, was for her only child, Dominique Richard, who had just become engaged. A guest’s plus-one would cause a permanent rift between them.”
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