Last night, I watched The New Medicine, hosted by Dana Reeve, and I was inspired. The message was everything I imagined Dana Reeve would so eloquently share as it mirrored the compassion, character and spirit of her life. During the show, several people were featured telling their personal story. One was a woman, who at 27, and single, had her large intestine surgically removed. This meant for the rest of her life she would be required to wear an external device to collect her stomach acids. Believing herself now devoid of any femininity, and unable to envision a future of hope or promise, she carefully collected the sleeping pills given to her each day, saving them for when she was released from the hospital. Once she returned home, she planned to take her life.

The actions of the medical staff reinforced her resolve that she was now something less than desirable, when each day, they arrived in white coats and gloves to remove and replace her device. When they finished they washed their hands and left her room. However, one evening, before her hospital release, a woman arrived, in evening wear and high heels. Stopping in to help on her way to an evening dinner date, she casually chatted as she removed the device, and carefully replaced it with a clean one. She did not wear gloves. The woman says she remembers the smell of her perfume and her beautifully painted fingernails. The woman who came to help her, washed her hands before handling the device. It changed the young woman's life, and in that single gesture of humanity and dignity, her perception of herself changed, and she rediscovered the first glimmers of hope. The young woman, now in her mid-life years, did not go home and commit suicide as she had planned, but went forward to embrace and live life, defining femininity on her own terms.