64 | September 2012 www.womanthismonth.com Remember that debacle! As quickly as it started, a vaccine was rushed to production, everyone was jabbed and then as mysterious as the wind it blew in on, it was gone. The funny thing is, we hear lots spoken of these viruses and illnesses when they occur because it’s good for business. Doctors get busier, pharmaceutical companies get richer and lab technicians rub there hands together with glee on the overtime they are about to feed off. That is probably why you never hear of the illness I speak of this month, because half the planet’s population is scared for it to become widely known. With last winter temperatures cooler than this Alpha Female prefers within the region, I became ill; nothing more than a sniffle, really. An aching head at first, sore throat and a light cough was followed by a few days of sniffles and sneezing. Then it departed my body for another. But this is not, of what I speak. You see, my partner came down with the same symptoms about a day after mine cleared. WoMentality Hero Worshipping Bird flu, Norovirus, Asian flu, Swine flu and Sars; we have heard about them all. They debilitate at will and are deadly; so deadly that the world went crazy not long back inoculating everyone over a thing called H1N1. During the few days I was ill, I was dragged to a night club because his friends had a birthday. I was also, despite pleading for the opposite, marched off to the cinema to watch a movie, my throbbing head did not wish to view. Despite eyes pounding out of their sockets, I was given a lecture on how, “if everyone in the world stayed home with a sniffle, global business would grind to a halt.” Flash forward 48 hours and the world had turned on its axis! In fact, you could almost believe we had entered a parallel universe. You see, the man in my life had the same symptoms, the same sniffles and the same sneezes except ‘Man Flu’, it would seem, is the most debilitating disease in the world. With him, there was no lecture to be had about “global industries grinding to a halt”. Oh no! While he was sick, the whole planet ground to a halt while everyone sought answers and a prognosis for this terrible infliction. His bones too weak to make it to the bed, the first evening he spent on the sofa, his eyes not too sore to watch the sports channels. He dared not consider venturing to the office for fear he might infect others. And the only food he sought was the broth his mother used to make for him as a child. Poor thing, mother lives on the other side of the planet — no mother, no broth, no repairing this man’s ailments. Why is it that a vaccine has never been invented for such a terrible sickness as ‘Man flu’? Why is it that men do not work hand-inhand to counter such an ailment which effects, it seems, only them? We girls may suffer, but men truly suffer harder. More painful than childbirth ‘Man Flu’ is not 'just a cold but a debilitation. Men do not ‘suffer’, they ‘agonise’ through its sniffles and unbearable pain. A hero, according to the great and truly heroic Christopher Reeve,” is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Therefore, I believe my mother, and all women who have suffered on the other side of the sick bed to men, are all heroes. Never once do I remember my mother taking days off sick, laying in bed and being cared for in all the years of my childhood. I’m not anti-male, I love the poor weak souls, but ‘hero’ should be redefined in our dictionaries, as women in relationships who have suffered through the debilitating ailments of the opposite sex! Any woman who can come out the other side of that, with love of man in tact, deserves everyone’s respect and admiration. By Hard-headed Woman
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