January 31 Day Challenge | Day 7
Who Knew She Was My Greatest Role Model?
It wasn’t until I was in my late fifties that I knew.
I used to look over at the table to see if there was a half-empty rocks glass. She was repeating herself, ad nauseum, a sure sign that one or more gin and tonics had been consumed. The combination of Equanil and gin made everything about her slower, thinking through thick fog, moving as though through knee-deep mud.
An Equanil advertisement, in a 1961 British Medical Journal, read:
For Ladies in Distress
Whenever your patients’ lives are complicated by anxiety and tension, particularly before and after menstrual periods and the menopause, Equanil will allow you to restore their repose safely and reliably. It is the selective, daytime sedative. It relaxes the mind and muscle without clouding consciousness or impairing judgement. Prescribe Equanil for your next ‘lady in distress’.
She was distressed all right! She was a brilliant woman stuck in the role of housewife…
