Travels With Charlize, In Search of Living Alone
David R. Gross
Author Bio
David R. Gross graduated from Colorado State University’s veterinary school in 1960 and was in private veterinary practice for ten years. He enrolled in graduate school and earned a M.Sc. degree in 1972 and a PhD degree in 1974 from the Ohio State University. He taught and did research at Texas A & M University; College of Veterinary Medicine for sixteen years then accepted a position as Professor and Director of the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Research labs at the University of Kentucky, College of Medicine for five years. He retired in 2006 after twelve years as Professor and Head of Veterinary Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Gross is a Fellow of the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiological Society. He published over ninety papers in refereed scientific journals and over a hundred abstracts in proceedings of scientific meetings. He co-edited three multi-authored textbooks and the three editions of his single author text; ANIMAL MODELS IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH are in most medical libraries. Since retirement, Dr. Gross has been busy writing both fiction and non-fiction. He self-published a self-help study/ learn guide; YOU CAN NAIL IT, and a memoir of his first year in veterinary practice; ANIMALS DON’T BLUSH. His historical novel; MAN HUNT, was published by Whiskey Creek Press. He writes a regular column for MyEdmondsNews.com and his personal essay; TRAVELS WITH CHARLIZE, IN SEARCH OF LIVING ALONE won a 2013 Writer’s Digest Award. He blogs at DOCDAVESVOICE.COM and his TRAVELS WITH CHARLIZE stories are now available in both print and electronic formats and have received critical acclaim. His most recent effort is a self-help guide; SUCCEEDING AS A STUDENT available in both electronic and print formats. This book teaches efficient and effective study habits, time management skills and test-taking techniques. He is currently working on a memoir of the year he and his family lived in Mexico City while he worked for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and he is researching a historical novel about the life of Samuel Ha-Nagid.
Description
In this memoir, a retired veterinarian and cardiovascular researcher takes to the highways and back roads of the West Coast with his dog, seeking solace and purpose.
After almost 53 years of marriage, Gross (Man Hunt, 2012, etc.) faced the death of the only woman he ever loved. How would he find a path through his now-solitary remaining years? Enter Charlize, a German shepherd, who suffered her own traumas before Gross adopted her from a rescue center. Through steady companionship, they forged a bond that would lead them both to recovery. Gross bought a 2012 Dodge Ram 1500 (“Old Blue”) and a camping trailer (the “Frog”) and with Charlize riding shotgun, he hit the road. Inspired by his literary hero, John Steinbeck (the author of the 1962 bestseller Travels with Charley), Gross wrote a steady stream of blog posts detailing his journeys up and down the coast, through the Southwest, and up to the fly-fishing rivers of Montana. This book represents the collected bloggings of a good year’s worth of extended road trips. It’s part travelogue, part personal musing, with an occasional sprinkling of history and a dash of self-deprecating humor, all of which makes it most enjoyable for readers to tag along. Gross effectively depicts his restlessness—how he logged an extraordinary number of hours behind the wheel each day, never staying more than a night at each stop, except when visiting with old friends or family. He was up at 5 or 6 each morning, when he felt a cold dog nose pressed against his face, and he and Charlize were on the road before 8, usually pulling into a campground around 4 in the afternoon. In between were frequent stops to admire whatever delightful displays nature laid out before them. Charlize appeared to find her own mission through these adventures: to protect and comfort her best friend and to introduce him to a variety of fellow travelers. When memories and sadness swept in, Gross writes, Charlize was there, snuggling under the author’s arm, letting him know he was not alone; in his usual taciturn style, the author says merely, “It worked.” Overall, Gross is an experienced, capable writer, and by the final page, readers will feel they know both man and dog.
A poignant, ultimately uplifting travel narrative that ends too quickly.
Review from Kirkus
Book excerpt
Holding Rosalie close, I cradled her head in my arms as she died. On the twenty-third of April, we would have celebrated fifty-three years of marriage. I’m coping—sort of.
A week before she died, we were sitting next to each other on our recliners. We weren’t paying attention to the endless commercials that incessantly interrupted David Letterman who was failing to interest us.
“Well,” she said, pulling out the nasal tube that was flowing oxygen into her nostrils, “pretty soon you’ll be able to get a dog.”
Bear, our previous German shepherd, had died six years previously, and we didn’t get another dog. That was the only time in my life that I can remember being dog-less, but Rosalie had developed balance problems—the aftermath of a viral encephalopathy and a brain biopsy, and we were worried that she would trip or fall over a dog. She knew I missed having a dog, and her out-of-the-blue statement was typical of her dark sense of humor.
“Stop talking nonsense,” I responded.
Throughout our last six months together, I prayed that the end would be fast and with as little pain and discomfort as possible. Her diagnosis of stage-four lung cancer came on January 4, 2012, after we noticed she had trouble breathing after only mild exercise. This was troubling because she routinely logged eleven to fourteen miles in fifty or sixty minutes on our stationary bike, burning more than three hundred calories four or five times a week.
Her oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance explained that the average statistics for her diagnosis were survival of three to six months. As a scientist, I was (and still am) convinced that the brain can heal any disease of the body if only we can figure out how to invoke the necessary killer cells, immunological responses, or whatever other body defense mechanisms are necessary by sending the correct messages from the brain. So I nagged Rosalie with all the determination I could muster about the power of positive thinking and prayer. I encouraged her to visualize her tumors and direct her body defense mechanisms to kill those nasty, unwanted, unwarranted growths.
With her typical quiet determination, Rosalie made it to six months, then eight, then ten and counting. She tired easily but appeared normal to everyone except me. A very private person, she didn’t want friends, or especially acquaintances, to know that she was seriously ill. Our two sons knew, but they humored her pretending this was just a minor inconvenience to be overcome.
In mid-December, she needed supplemental oxygen, and on December 27, the oncologist suggested home hospice care. The hospice people showed up and enrolled her on January 2. Because of the holidays, the people from the hospice were unable to supply the oral morphine she needed to remain comfortable. She soldiered through with the painkillers and other medications we had on hand. She didn’t complain. Finally, on January 3, we were supplied and instructed. We were trying to adjust to the next stage of the experience.