When You've Got Your Health, You've Got Everything

Hannah's daddy was a teacher who barely made enough money to raise his six kids. Hannah wore hand-me-downs from her older sisters. For Christmas she usually got used dolls and books. As a child, she yearned to have the beautiful clothes, cars, and homes that she often saw on TV and in magazines.

Several years after she graduated from college, she became part-owner of a successful interior decorating business in Manhattan. Her life became what she had dreamed about as a little girl. A successful business woman, she had a handsome, wealthy fiance. She owned her own co-op near Central Park. She took skiing vacations in the winter and exotic cruises in the summer. At the age of 30, Hannah was on top of the world.

Then she underwent a routine health checkup, and her perfect world crumbled. Her doctor told her that she had pancreatic cancer. Surgery was necessary to determine how much the cancer had spread. Hannah was operated on a week later. The surgeon suspected that cancer had spread to vital organs. Ten days later, the lab confirmed his suspicions.

Hannah's doctor said he could treat her with chemotherapy and painkillers, but it was just a matter of time before the cancer killed her. She asked how much time. He guessed that she had less than a year to live. How can this be, Hannah wondered. Doesn't this always happen to someone else?

A couple of weeks later, she visited another cancer specialist. He examined her and read her medical and lab reports. He said he agreed with her surgeon. "If you have any once-in-a-lifetime plans, do them now," he advised.

Instead, Hannah spent her last months in her co-op, tended to by hospice workers. Her family and friends visited her regularly. The moment before she died, she opened her eyes and tried to say something to her fiance. She squeezed his hand weakly.

"She was in constant pain," her fiance said. "At the end, she could barely whisper. She weighed 80 pounds when she died. I can't believe that God allows things like this to happen to people."

Words Difficult to Pronounce

chemotherapy [kee-moh-ther-uh-pee, kem-oh-]

exotic     [ig-zot-ik]

     pancreatic  [pan-kree-uhs, pang-]

     interior   [in-teer-ee-er]

     suspicion  [suh-spish-uhn]

VOCABULARY REVIEW

1.interior

  - being within; inside of anything; internal; inner; furthertoward a center: the interior rooms of a house. 

Example: The interior of the house is beautiful.

2.exotic - strikingly unusual or strange in effect or        appearance 


Example: I bought an exotic plant from the market.

3.barely - only just; scarcely; no more than; almost not

Example: She failed because she barely studied 
 

               for the examinations.

4.suspicion - act of suspecting

Example: She has suspicions that her colleague was pilfering money.

5.chemotherapy - the treatment of disease by means of chemicals that have a specific toxic effect against 

the disease producing micro-organisms or that selectively destroy cancer-producing tissues

Example: She rejected chemotherapy because it is very painful.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What kind of life did Hannah experience when she was younger?

2.How did she become rich?

3. How did she learn about her sickness?

4.According to the doctor, how long does she had to   live?

5.How did she spend her last days or months?

VIEWPOINT DISCUSSION

1. Good health is wealth.

2. Cancer patients do not need chemotherapy if they have very little time to live.

• article taken from   http://www.eslfast.com/eslread/ss/s291.htm