THE NEWYORKER, AUGUST 5 & 12, 2019 3
in Heller’s piece, the question that the
mother of children with Canavan dis-
ease asks: How do you take care of a
child with a fatal illness? The urgent
fund-raising efforts of parents who
are trying to save their children have
led to extraordinary medical break-
throughs. But advances often do not
arrive in time for the people who fight
for them. I hope that such families can
focus on quality of life in the time that
they have with their child. The peace
that arises from that attitude lessens
other pain.
Blyth Lord
Founder and Executive Director
Courageous Parents Network
Newton, Mass.
1
TRIBUTE TO A FRIENDJill Lepore’s portrait of her friend Jane
is more eloquent and evocative than
the eulogies most of us will ever give
or receive (“The Deadline,” July 8th &
15th). Even more staggering is the rev-
elation that Lepore’s œuvre is a kind
of monument to Jane. We have found
the Taj Mahal of historical scholarship.
Julia Kazaks
Palo Alto, Calif.
1
THE YOUNG POETDan Chiasson’s article about the poet
James Tate brought back memories of
my friendship with Tate at Kansas State
College (now Pittsburg State Univer-
sity), in the nineteen-sixties (Books,
July 8th & 15th). One day, Jim asked
me to read a few of his poems. The
next morning, when he asked what I
thought, I responded, “Tate, you gotta
start going to class.” Years later, he won
the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
John C. Coughenour
Seattle, Wash.PAYING FOR TREATMENT
Nathan Heller, in his piece about how
families are crowdfunding to cover
medical costs, astutely observes that
the exploitative storytelling culture un-
derpinning GoFundMe “looks past all
the interlocking motions of society in
favor of the personal, the private, the
atomized view” (“Tell Us What You
Need,” July 1st). The crowdfunding
system requires people, such as the
parents of gravely ill children, to stra-
tegically craft a digital presence from
their suffering. This is a serious moral
concern: the practice of packaging ex-
periences often dehumanizes story-
tellers by reducing them to the prob-
lems they face. Heller describes a
project that funds therapy for black
women and girls without requiring
them to recount painful memories to
benefactors. Such a campaign is a re-
freshing alternative in a culture where
collecting and sharing stories is the
default response to systemic issues large
and small.
Nassim Parvin
Associate Professor of Digital Media
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Ga.
I’m a palliative-care physician who sits
knee to knee every day with people
facing the loss of a loved one, and I’m
often struck by how the costs of seri-
ous illness lead to financial catastro-
phe. Heller’s article reminded me of a
woman who, seeking the least expen-
sive final arrangements for a sick fam-
ily member, decided to crowdfund a
cremation. Although options such as
GoFundMe can expand the virtual vil-
lage of support, they are ultimately an-
other manifestation of our patchwork
system’s inadequacy when it comes to
the seriously ill.
Leah B. Rosenberg
Division of Palliative Care
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Mass.
As the mother of a child who died
from Tay-Sachs disease, I recognize,
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