Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir

I read a lot of memoirs, and this is the best memoir I have ever read. Her husband died, she wrote an op ed in the Times about trying to disconnect his landline, a Jungian psychiatrist in California read it and wrote to her and they fell in love and then she was diagnosed with AML leukemia, the same disease that killed her sister Nora. Incredible that she could write this book after the years-long stem cell transplant ordeal she went through. So moving to read how Dr. Roboz saved her life. I too spent a lot of time on the oncology floor of Weill Cornell with a family member - it was haunting to read about her ordeal there.
So happy for her and Peter (who Nora had actually fixed her up with when she was 18). It does seem as though Nora show more is somewhere looking out for her.
The book made me wish I could know her. show less

Goosebumps, chills, tears, chuckles, repeat!! This book will make you want to drop everything and become a stem-cell donor, adopt a Havanese dog, and fall in love again at 72. I admit that when I first started listening, I was like, she's not her sister...but then the more I listened (and the more she repeated that herself), the more I realized what an altogether wonderful thing that is. I also realized, after IMDBing her, that SHE wrote the screenplay for not only You've Got Mail, but also Mixed Nuts!! Her writing is so plain but still somehow so powerful that I sobbed so hard one day on my way to work that I ended up turning into a dance school drop-off line instead of taking my exit onto the highway. Highly recommend.

Delia is one of the four Ephron sisters, all writers, all suffering from a tumultuous childhood with their alcoholic mother and raging father, both screenwriters. Nora died of leukemia in 2012, at age 71. Delia has known for years that her blood carries acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and has been tested for a number of years. In 2012, Delia's husband Jerry dies and she is kept afloat by a devoted network of close friends, many of whom were equally engaged with Nora. When Delia writes a kvetchy column to the New York Times about her issues with Verizon, she receives an appreciative email from Peter Rutter, a divorced psychiatrist, and despite mountainous odds, they fall in love. Too quickly, Delia's leukemia becomes acute and she must show more labor through an experimental stem cell transplant, and procedures so painful that she begs to die. With the knowledge of incredible medical practitioners, the devotion of Peter, and the reminder to fear the disease, not the treatment, Delia makes a slow recovery and resumes her happy city life, in complete remission, in two years. This is a tense and sometimes trying audiobook, but her blunt honesty keeps the listener at her side. show less

I first found out about this book while listening to Delia Ephron being interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air program. I immediately fell in love with Delia. And I’m glad I heard her on that show first because I’m afraid had I not heard that interview I might not have been so enamored of her from the book. Her life is so foreign to me. She reminds me of fellow New Yorkers Joan Didion and Fran Lebowitz with their “Only Murders in the Buidling” apartments and their cosmopolitan lifestyle in the Big Apple. Hopping on a plane to the West Coast is nothing, either in expense or logistics. A quick trip to Wales is like going down to the corner store for the rest of us. I just needed to get over that and immerse myself in the show more incredible story Ephron told about surviving leukemia and the unbelievable journey to get there. There can’t be a person on earth with more good friends than Delia Ephron, and it was those friends and her knight in shining armor, husband Peter, who helped her through the pain and misery of the cure. Left on Tenth is a story that is, in parts, very difficult to read, but the effort and well worth it. I liked Delia Ephron so much after that interview and after reading this book, I went back to the NPR web site and listened to the Terry Gross interview again. And I liked her all over again. show less

What happened to Delia Ephron was objectively horrible. Within a few short years, her beloved (and famous) sister Nora died from leukemia, Delia's husband of 37 years died from prostate cancer, and she herself was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The one bright spot was the serendipitous email from Peter, a widower she dated briefly in college. The emails became calls, calls became visits, and Delia surprisingly found the second great love of her life at age 72.

The portrayal of the trauma and suffering that Delia experienced from her illness, including an experimental bone marrow transfusion that almost killed her until it saved her life, is truly harrowing. And I'm glad she recovered and can enjoy her life with Peter and show more her numerous friends.

But honestly why do I keep reading memoirs about rich women when they make me so crabby? Delia does acknowledge her privilege that she can fly cross-country and to Europe whenever she wants, knowing that her beautiful apartment is in the care of her housekeeper. But she is still incredibly annoying about it. When she is discharged from the hospital after a long stay, she needs physical therapy but wants it on her terms.

The hospital suggests that I spend five weeks in their rehab facility, but I can't bear to do that. We meet with two physical therapists who we can get through Medicare. I think I am allowed a few weeks' coverage. No one can come back from this enfeebled state in a few weeks. It's shocking how little government assistance helps.

I mean come on lady, you are so rich that you attend Wimbledon on an annual basis (except the post-hospital year), and you're complaining about the lack of government assistance? Do you know what kind of book someone living in poverty who had AML would write? None, because they would be dead, due to inadequate access to treatments like yours.

Ahem. Off of the soapbox. This is fine. show less

So well written with much personal information and a great deal of information about leukemia and stem cell replacement. I could have been put off by the fact that the author is famous, rich, and lives in New York City, but her story and experiences resonated with me on a human basis. She shares her grief and fears about surviving cancer and the death of a sister and husband, as well as the joy of close, personal friends and finding a second love.

She lost her sister and her husband in short order, but then unexpectedly at the age of 72, she is given a second chance at love. It is an article she wrote lambasting Verizon after a frustrating and aggravating contretemps she had with them, that brings her this chance. The man, who will become her husband, also lost his wife, was wonderful. Then fate strikes and the genetic based cancer that killed her sister comes for her. What follows is a herculean struggle forget life.

Every once in a while, one picks up a book that hits one hard. Is so incredibly relatable that it's uncanny. You see two in a half years ago, shortly after the new year, I contracted RSV and because of my severe asthma, it landed me in the hospital. That night, show more though I don't remember this, I was placed on a ventilator and put in a medically induced coma. My family was told that I had a fifty, fifty chance of survival. Well obviously I survived but like Della I spent months in physical therapy. Never as extensive nor as serious as why she went through but so many of my thoughts, as related in this book, were thoughts I shared. Also in her book she says, "Trauma is so isolating" which it is, but also, feeling half way normal again, I entered the world of Covid as she did.

Her honesty, her ability as an author to bring her struggles to life, touched me. I thank her for sharing her story, because I'm sure like myself she has touched many. show less