Jean Taylor
Format: paperback
Publisher: Spinifex Press
Year of Publication: 2000
ISBN: 1-875559-99-X
Reviewed by Judy Smith (2007) Consumer Representative, NT
The C-Word is an honest, emotive, candid and sometimes quite confronting account of how the author dealt with her partner's diagnosis, subsequent treatment and ultimate death from ovarian cancer. The book is written in diary format over a period of almost 3 years.
The author, Jean Taylor has been a very active member of the Melbourne lesbian community for more than 25 years. She was a founding member of the Performing Women's Circus (POW). Her partner Maureen (Maurs) O'Connor worked as the head technician in the circus and then successfully turned her hand at moving on stage and becoming a clown in the circus. Her commitment to this role delayed her hospitalization for an ovarian cancer diagnosis, so that she could appear in the POW Women's Circus production of "Still Revolting" in 1996.
Throughout her book, Jean describes and details, sometimes in very graphic detail the unrelenting, debilitating and merciless treatments Maurs suffers and endures for ovarian cancer that ultimately claims her life. Coming from a nursing background, Jean brutally attacks the short comings of the public health system - waiting interminably for appointments, enduring radiotherapy equipment breakdowns and enduring what seemed like relentless and uncaring members of the medical profession. Her perception was that patient's needs and comforts were not really taken into account in the grand scheme of things.
Maurs diagnosis and subsequent treatment led Jean to get together the first Lesbian Cancer Support Group (LCSG). Her dedication to the feminist activism movement was such that she wanted to make a difference, to have something useful and worthwhile come out of Maurs cancer experience. She states that it was evident that more talk is needed, more information needs to be exchanged and more support needs to be offered.
As Maurs disease progresses, Jean openly and frankly relates how she deals with her own feelings of loneliness, bewilderment, fear and terror and then the ultimate calm of facing Maurs death. Jean details how she didn't want to see the suffering, to observe the wasted body of her beloved partner. But at the same time she wanted to be there for Maurs. She relates how at times she felt like shutting the door and going into retreat while she went mad with grief.
Not a book for the faint hearted at all. As stated in the blurb, reading the book is an emotional experience but it is also an enlightening, honest and poignant account from a partner's, carer's and supporter's perspective.
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