Exit - Lilian Badd, Author

2:55 AM Posted by MAC

EXIT and Stuffed Eggplants
  A Lilian Badd favorite
2 medium eggplants
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon oregano
1  teaspoon basil
1  teaspoon thyme
2  6-ounce can tomato paste
3 cans hot coffee (2 1/4 cups)
2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
Preheat oven to 350. Wash, dry and split two eggplants lengthwise. Place in a shallow glass baking dish flesh side down. Add a small amount of water to the dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the eggplants. Scoop out the pulp and place in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except the Swiss cheese. Pack the mixture into eggplant shells and top with the Swiss cheese. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Slice across the eggplants for each serving.
Serves 8.

Exit – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh Repeat

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is costly, care for it.
Life is wealth, keep it.
Life is love, enjoy it.
Life is mystery, know it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.” (Mother Theresa)

If death came knocking at your door today, would you feel your life had been worthwhile and complete?  Would there be accomplishments that need to be fulfilled?  In Exit, Ondine Duquesne-Schmidt finds herself facing both of these questions and more.  She has spent most of her life doing exactly what was expected of her.  She followed the routine of being a good daughter, a good wife and a good mother.  But at what expense to her own self and her own dreams?  You see, Ondine has been diagnosed with 1st stage lymphocytic leukemia.  Her time is limited and there is so much she has not done and needs to do. 

Patients with incurable diseases normally pass through several stages:  rage, anger, bargaining with God, depression, denial and finally acceptance.  Ondine skipped the first stages and went straight to depression.  And with the depression came the attitude of doing whatever felt good.

These feelings take Ondine from her home in Paris to America to Mexico and then back home again.  But along the way she will recognize those things and people who have true meanings to her and her life. Awakening.  Allowing her to fulfill her dearest youth dream, "a dream covered by dust."  Becoming the woman she was meant to be.  Becoming a writer.  A rebirth through the illness.

Following Ondine as she finds herself has opened me up to feelings that I’m sure are felt by those sentenced to death but not knowing exactly when their sentence will be carried out.  One statement Author Liliana Badd makes in Exit has really stuck with me.  It is “My time is different from that of other people.  My years are being compressed into weeks, my days into minutes.”  I don’t believe any truer words could be used to describe the time left for those diagnosed with a terminal illnessExit has given me a new outlook on people around me, both ill and well.  It’s also made me take a look at my own life, looking for changes that I personally might need to make before my time comes.

Exit

2010
Trafford Publishing
340 pages
ISBN# 978-1-4269-3587-9
 

0 comments:

Post a Comment