I am so grateful to Sonora Review for publishing my story, “La Rabida Heart Sanitarium, 1954.” The piece is based on my mother’s experience with rheumatic fever, which she contracted in the first grade. She spent most of the school year hospitalized. The hearts of children with this illness were so fragile that the treatment involved complete bed rest. The slightest activity could overtax the organ. In fact, sadly, my mother’s hospital roommate, a little girl named Camille, died of the disease.
Rheumatic fever played a big role in my family narrative, not only because of my mother’s hospitalization, but also because my grandfather suffered with it as a child. He had numerous heart attacks throughout his life, ultimately dying of one in his sixties. Because rheumatic fever left his heart very damaged, as a young man, he was advised not to marry, not to risk having children, not to take on a big career. But my grandfather didn’t listen. He married my grandmother, and together they had eleven children. My grandfather went to medical school and developed a thriving internal medicine practice, taking call late at night and working long hours. He was a strong man with a very weak heart. My story is dedicated to him and to all the children like Camille who lost their lives to rheumatic fever.
Note: This story has been selected to appear in the 2019 Best Small Fictions anthology.
