Lisa Hoffman and Charles Atkins

Published October 19, 2006

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

--Thoreau

Charlie writes:

Over two years ago--after Lisa’s stroke--she and I began writing these columns together (prior to this she’d been doing them on her own for many years). Initially, when she wasn’t doing so hot, I encouraged her to come up with a topic, or even just a sentence and we’d go from there. That first sentence, written in a very shaky hand a few weeks after her stroke, turned into two, then three, then a paragraph and soon we’d developed a true collaboration. "Now the time has come," I tell her "to push things further, and get you doing more of these on your own. What do you think?"

"Well," she says, "I’m willing; although I enjoy doing them together. On my own it takes me much longer than sitting down and exchanging ideas with you and having you whip them up on your laptop. As you know I’m anti computer and I still write my columns in long hand and then type them up and fax them to the newspaper. It’s much more time consuming, but I still prefer the old fashioned way."

"There’s definitely something to be said for the efficiency of the computer," I say. "I’ll sit down, type the column while we’re chatting, attach it to an email along with the picture for the week, press a button and we’re done. You’ve got several more steps to go through. Did I ever mention that as a child one of my favorite books was Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth? It’s the story of an efficiency expert who had twelve children, and it’s all about how he and his wife raised them using principles of industrial efficiency. One of the points made in that book that really stuck, is that efficiency is about freeing up our time. What we do with that extra time is entirely up to us."

"Talking about pushing buttons," Lisa says, "what I also like about our collaboration is you ask me questions that make me think about things I’ve forgotten. Or maybe you get me to look at things in a different light. It’s a sort of give and take."

"When we started these," I comment, "it was like another dimension to your rehabilitation. As you were relearning how to walk and to get around, we did something similar with the column."

"It’s a sort of step-at-a-time approach I learned in rehab," she says, "which also applies to writing."

"Years ago," I add, "and I think it was a nurse who taught me this, but one of the major principles of any form of rehabilitation is that you want to assist people, but not do more for them than is necessary. You’re trying to find the subtle point where you gently stretch—like in Yoga—someone’s limits. It’s important that people have to reach, but not so far that they’re unlikely to succeed."

"Like when I’m at the doctor’s office," she says, "and he’s finished with me and I’m getting up from the chair. He’ll ask me, ‘do you need help?’ and I say, ‘no’. But it’s reassuring that he’s there just in case."

"Okay," I say, "so it sounds like we’ve agreed that you’ll begin doing more of these on your own. Which, is a bit of a relief for me as I’m knee deep in multiple book projects right now?"

"You’re trying to get rid of me," she adds.

"Not entirely, but going with the above principles why don’t we start having you solo once a month?"

She swallows hard, and gives one of her best helpless-little-old-lady looks. It doesn’t work and I crack up.

"That’s an evil laugh," she comments, "and you don’t have to write down everything I say."

"True, but thinking back over the past couple years this is a nice place to be, don’t you think?"

"Yes," she says, "it’s almost a miracle. I’ve come such a long way, and I had a lot of help, be it friends who visited when I was in rehab, or people who helped me out once I returned home. Then there was all of the physical therapy and occupational therapy and now Yoga. But what is equally important is mental stimulation—exercising the brain. As we all know, mind, spirit and body are connected. Unless you think positive you can’t accomplish what you set out to do. For instance, every morning, even before I’ve had breakfast, the first thing I do is try to solve the SCRAMBLE in The Waterbury Republican. I don’t stop until I get all the words, and should I not succeed I tear it out, and wait for the flash of inspiration that will let me finish it."

"And if the flash doesn’t go off?" I ask, setting up my camera so Lisa can have a new headshot for the paper.

"There’s always tomorrow," and she chuckles, "because they print the answers in the paper."

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