This Is Really Important, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      

                                      One day last week,  "The New York  Times" announced that  Karen Killilea had died, at  the age of 80, back on  October 20, of this year.  That name  instantly rang a bell with me, as I am sure it would with many of the Baby Boomer Generation.  For those who do not know about Karen,  it is about time you did.  I can  only hope,  in tribute to her, the books are reprinted, and widely re-distributed.

                                          Back when I was ten,  many stores of all kinds had either paperback racks,  or kiosks.  Almost always, I would see, among them, at this time, this book with a blue background, and a portrait of a smiling pigtailed girl, from another era.  The book's title was emblazoned in big block letters--"KAREN."  Above that were the words, "She lived a miracle!"

                                            It was certainly eye-catching.  I  found myself asking,  "What miracle did she  live?"  A search on the back cover and inside blurbs, revealed nothing.  I had known  about Helen  Keller and  "The Miracle Worker" by this time,  so maybe that was it.

                                             Time went  on,  and  the  book  became  less visible, as did its sequel,  "With  Love, From  Karen."  Having reached my twenties,  I finally picked up a copy of "Karen," and read it,  enraptured,  and deeply moved.  Karen Killilea,  who was born on August 18, 1940, was three months  premature,  and diagnosed  with cerebral  palsy.  At a  time  when the advice was to instituiionalize such infants,  and forget about them,  the Killileas refused to give up,  finally finding a doctor in Baltimore Maryland, who introduced them  to the then radical concept of physical therapy. The  book  then chronicles their work  with Karen, so that she evolves from a disabled infant, into a functional, happy child.  The sequel, "With Love, From  Karen," begins five years after the first book  ends,  chronicling Karen's journey from adolescence  into adulthood.  If you read the first, you cannot not read the other.

                                                Girls, I cried real  tears.  One would have to have a heart of stone not to.  And I never forgot Karen's story,  and how inspirational it was to me, as well as my having some tangenial  connections  to  it.

                                                   I was born on November 18, 1954.  I was two months premature.  I spent the first two weeks of my life in a hospital incubator.  My making it then was questionable.  I did,  but later was diagnosed with a congential heart defect I had surgically corrected on May 10, 1966.  And just this year--on October 15, I had a heart ablation, now having atrial  fib.

                                                    So, I relataed to Karen,  and it gave me an idea of what my parents had to go through,  which I now appreciate at this late age.  My sister, by the way, was born in 1940,with no 

problem.  Had Karen  been  born full term--on  November 18, 1940, we might have shared the same  birthday, but I  would never have known about her.

                                                    By the way,  when I was born  I had red hair.  The pediatrician  at  the time,  Frederick W.  Lathrop, whom  my mother  had  worked for, as a nurse,  told her, at the time, "Red  hair preemies are the ones who make  it."  My sister  told me this.  And here I am!

                                                      Karen's mother,  Marie Killilea, wrote  both books. The first book was published in 1952, the second in 1963.  In the second book, the reader learns that the Killileas were living in Larchmont,  NY,  and their neighbors were Jean and Walter  Kerr--she, the author of "Please Don't Eat The Daisies," he, the most renowned theater critic of the day.  They gave Karen and her family lots of emotional  support.

                                                          If  you remember "Karen," tell me about your experience with this story.  If you haven't, latch on to some copies, and read them both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                            I  promise  to get to Ann Reinking,  but Karen  was cucially important!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!