Ben Goldenberg is an internist and infectious diseases fellow in Chicago, IL.
Among all the great stories I’ve read in Intima, my favorite is “Popsicle” by Leslie Carr (Fall 2021). It’s an intoxicatingly tender and funny account of a home-visiting nurse’s trip to see Amanda, a young mother who proves to be a particularly challenging client. Carr gives us a window into the chaotic conditions of Amanda’s home life: clouds of cigarette smoke, people sleeping on the floor, romantic relationships among her house guests starting and ending in real time. The description of the scene is so striking because of how sensory it is; when you read the story you can smell the ketchup coagulating on stale Tater Tots. You can hear the bone-chilling vowel sounds of thick rural Pennsylvania accents, melting over each long o like provolone on a Wawa hoagie. It feels like you’re right there inside with the narrator, whether you want to be or not.
I think what “Popsicle” has in common with my story “For the Old Man Buying a Stuffed Giraffe” (Intima, Spring 2022) is that both are at least partially about the silly little places we all turn to for comfort—whether that’s junk food or stuffed animals or loitering in a gift shop to avoid work. What’s so great about “Popsicle” is that it regards Amanda’s potentially counterproductive coping mechanisms with gentle amusement, but it never judges or admonishes. Carr affectionately recognizes and accepts Amanda for who she is: a person being the best she can be for herself and the people she loves, even when the often-insurmountable roadblocks of her life’s circumstances get in the way.
There is a poignant moment at the end of the story where Amanda’s sister asks Carr, regarding their family, “Can you fix us?” Carr’s answer is “no,” and she rejects the basic premise of the question. And that, to me, is what it’s all about. Sometimes the job we do isn’t about fixing what’s wrong but rather helping each other survive within the confines of our brokenness.
Ben Goldenberg is an internist and infectious diseases fellow in Chicago, IL. He is from Munster, IN. Read his other writing at Buffett Buffet, the Jimmy Buffett blog he writes with his brother Harry. IG: @adrien_grody.