HEART WALK FOR ‘THE PEDUZZI FLU’

I had a pretty good weekend, and managed to avoid doing much for work, for a change.
Saturday I went with my niece to the American Heart Association Start! Heart Walk. Walks have become a big fund-raising event for many causes; it’s become a pick your weekend and your cause thing. I did one several years ago for diabetes, but this is the first since then I’ve gone on, although I’ve donated to some since.
Anyway, Mary sent me an email saying she was doing this, because given the history of heart disease in our family, her generation is getting to where they need to think about it.
I think my father was the first, in 1959, the summer after I graduated from high school. As I recall the events, he came home from work feeling sick, called the doctor somewhere along the line, who said ‘it’s probably indigestion’ and told him to go to bed. At some point, don’t remember exactly when (I wasn’t home at the time, was working over across the river as a waitress in a small resort and that’s another story) he ended up going to the hospital, where they did tests and he spent time walking around the halls visiting people he knew, when two doctors came and grabbed him and carried him to bed and told him he’d had a heart attack. He was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and then home recovering for a while after that. I went off to college while he was still getting better, and he wrote me letters – in one he commented about the weather being warm one day and chilly the next and said ‘Oh, well, that’s September for you”.
He went on to be as active as before, pretty much. Then in the 1970’s, he had bypass surgery. This was back when it was still fairly new, and he had to go to a hospital in New York City for it. My then mother-in-law had it done a few years before his, and I remember we took an ambulance down to NYC to bring her home-stopping in a diner along the way for lunch and saying we needed an order to go for the person on the stretcher. When my folks said that their daughter could bring a rig to take him home, the doctor said ‘an ambulance! How did you get here?’ ‘On the train.’ ‘Well, then take the train home’. They didn’t, my cousin who lived in the city and used to come up many weekends anyway gave them a ride.
There was something in the hospital about the ‘Zipper Club’, because the scar looks like a zipper down the chest.
I went down to the house a while after he’d been settled down, and he had a glass of scotch – ‘It wasn’t on the list of what I can’t have!’ he said.
Anyway, after his, I forget the order, but six of his brothers and sisters had heart attacks, a couple had the bypass surgery, at least one did not make it to that point.
Then, my Uncle John and his family at the time had gone to Florida, to Disney World. They came home to find an ambulance parked in front of the house, and my cousin, his youngest son, on the stretcher, I think maybe in his early 40’s at the time, having a heart attack. After being told that Mark was doing well and would be all right, Uncle John looked at him and said ‘Don’t worry, you’re just having the Peduzzi Flu!’
There’s a picture of my father and his three brothers someplace, the ‘Coronary Quartet’.
By now a few others of my generation have had heart attacks and/or bypass surgery. So far my ticker’s in good shape, they say. Still….
So I signed up for the walk and we went and had a dandy time. It was in a large community park, with paths to walk on that made a 3-mile loop. A lot of people, I won’t even try to guess but several hundred easily. Many families, work groups, school kids, people with photos of loved ones gone on t-shirts, at least one woman on a motorized wheelchair, a few with walkers and canes, many with strollers or kids in wagons. Several displays of heart-healthy things, a board to sign a remembrance on, healthy snacks and sandwiches after the walk, a radio live broadcast and singers, someone to do a warm-up exercise and even a ‘brass band’ to play as we started walking. Brownie scouts handing out water and more healthy snacks along the way. Pretty enough scenery for a place on the edge of the city, and some dance, yoga and music groups to watch as we walked. At each mile point there were people to cheer us on. Near the end there were more cheerers, and one woman said ‘this is the last hill’ and Mary and I, we’ve both hiked up mountains, said this isn’t a hill, this is a ‘rise’. A group congratulating the finishers. We had our sandwiches and a nice talked with a woman with a group called ‘Sistah’s With A Heart’, from a church group in Albany that raises thousands of dollars (made our paltry $500 + pretty skinchy, but every bit helps). Decided we need to get more of us and do it again next year. Oh, and we need at least one dog, too, there were lots of dogs, some wearing the same t-shirts the people with them had on. We can call ourselves ‘The Peduzzi Flu Crew’.
Here’s what I think: that these things are great. It’s a way to raise awareness – and money – that’s fun and gets you out in the fresh air, meeting new people and sharing experiences. Doesn’t get any better.