Jeannie Gaffigan is a writer and executive producer of The Jim Gaffigan Show. Both seasons are currently airing on TV Land. She's also a business partner and wife to comedian Jim Gaffigan. She's a year older than I am and grew up in Milwaukee. I've long admired how she manages five kids and their appointments, activities, school schedule and gets them all to church. I know this because I've read Jim Gaffigan's comedy memoirs and watch The Jim Gaffigan Show, which is described as loosely (or exactly?) based on the lives of the Gaffigans. If it's at all true, Jeannie and I also share a love of red wine.
This is her story of what it was like to discover that a pear-sized tumor was hanging out in her brain. The idea of listening to the story of a mother of five with a brain tumor undergoing surgery at Easter might be too close for comfort for you (and for me, truth be told) but I love Jeannie Gaffigan and I appreciate her sharing this story. What's the number one best thing about Jeannie's tumor and surgery? She survives.
When a pear-sized tumor was discovered after an MRI and it was determined that surgery was required to remove it, Jeannie's first instinct was that she couldn't have surgery because she hadn't put the Easter baskets together for her kids. I regularly have rationalizations like this on a much smaller scale. I can't control whether or not summer camps are canceled for the entire summer of 2020 but I will have the breakfast table set every morning. I can control that. Jeannie's story is about coming to terms over and over again with accepting what you have or can do and coming to terms with what you don't have and can't change. Hers was a rocky road but she handled it with grace and good humor and by sharing her story, she will help others struggling with whatever life has thrown at them, be it lemons or pears or a global pandemic.
Available as an eBook and audiobook from OverDrive.