• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Susannah Fox

I help people navigate health and technology.

  • Home
  • Writing
    • greatest hits
    • beauty and wonder
    • demographics
    • featured commenters
    • health data
    • key people
    • peer-to-peer health care
    • positive patterns
    • public Q&A
    • trends & principles
  • Research
    • How Young People Use Digital Media to Manage Their Health
    • Digital Health Practices Among Teens and Young Adults: Key Findings
    • Fact sheet: teens and young adults, social media, online health resources
    • Fact sheet: differences between young women and young men in their use of social media, online health resources
    • Pew Research: Americans’ Data Worries
  • About me
    • Now
    • Curriculum vitae
  • Upcoming events

Resilience

August 24, 2013 By Susannah Fox 5 Comments

Resilience

Cast-iron Scottie dog door stopThe following essay appeared in The Washington Post magazine in a column that asks: “So much is contained in such small things. What holds meaning for you?” I wrote it as a tribute to my father’s resilience, which I hope to pass down to my sons:

I was 24 and still called Susy when my grandparents’ house in Towson was cleaned out for sale. I asked for just a few things, including a cast-iron doorstop in the shape of a Scottie dog. I’d always thought it would make a cute bookend.

When my dad brought my stuff over to my apartment in D.C., I met him on the sidewalk. He asked if I knew that the Scottie dog had originally come from his grandparents’ house. He hesitated, then added that it was the doorstop from the upstairs parlor, where he was sitting when he was told, at age 6, that his mother was dead.

He remembered staring at the little Scottie dog as the news sank in, not being able to take his eyes off it. My dad had never talked with me about his mother’s death, and now we were crying together.

“I sang myself to sleep every night for a year,” he continued. “You are named for the song my mother had sung to me: ‘Oh! Susanna.’ ”

From that day on, I went by Susannah. And the Scottie dog is a very cute bookend.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: beauty and wonder Tagged With: family

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brett Alder says

    August 25, 2013 at 4:37 pm

    Very touching. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      August 25, 2013 at 9:26 pm

      Thanks, Brett, I’m honored that you like the story. I haven’t told the full one to many people, usually just leaving it at “yes, I’m named for the song.”

      Reply
      • Brett Alder says

        August 26, 2013 at 3:44 pm

        I know it involves some risk sharing something so personal, but when you do it reminds so many of us of our own unique experiences with grandparents and poignant memories with parents. Much better than “I’m named after the song” in my opinion.

        Reply
  2. Jeanne says

    August 25, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    Susannah, This is beautiful. It struck so many chords. At the risk of sounding like a Borges short story, I’ll ask: do you think some things, like that Scottie, can have a memory and will? allbest jeanne

    p.s. your sons are lucky to have you as their mom!

    Reply
    • Susannah Fox says

      August 25, 2013 at 9:49 pm

      Thanks, Jeanne!

      I’m not ready to say that objects have a memory or will of their own, but I do think that there must be some kind of energy associated with certain objects. I inherited other things from my grandparents, but none evoked a story like that one. Why did I choose it, among many other doorstops? Was there something about the Scottie dog itself, his on-guard but soulful expression? Or was it the moment, the angle of the sunlight when my dad got out of the car that inspired him to tell me? I don’t know.

      I wonder a bit about all the hidden or forgotten stories in the objects we live with and pass down. Why do some objects persist, generation to generation, for reasons besides their monetary value?

      Have you read the Harry Potter series? There are objects containing a piece of someone’s soul — called horcruxes — that I think evoke the idea of a memory or a will in an inanimate object.

      Personally, I’ve never been much of a collector — the opposite of a hoarder, in fact — but I do like to think about who came before me and what they would tell me if they could speak through the objects that persist.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Before Footer

Don't miss a post

Enter your email address and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Comments

  • Kevin Lawrence on Caregiver starter pack: “We recently read The End-of-Life Handbook in our book club on Smart Patients. It’s aimed at caregivers rather than patients…” Feb 2, 09:41
  • Susannah Fox on Patient-led innovation: “Thank you! I’m very happy to know about your work and will add it to the list.” Feb 1, 09:19
  • Andrea Pauls Backman on Patient-led innovation: “Susannah, great list of patient-led organizations and programs, thank you. I would suggest adding a new, award-winning program co-produced by…” Feb 1, 08:58

Footer

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Topics

  • Beauty and Wonder
  • Demographics
  • Key People
  • Participatory Research
  • Peer-to-Peer Health Care
  • Positive Patterns
  • Public Q&A
  • Trends and Principles

popular posts

  • Caregiver starter pack
  • "A jumbo jet a day" - who said it?
  • Hack needed: Tiny pills, trembling hands
  • Patient-led innovation

Explore

Copyright Susannah Fox © 2023 · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.