System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Erma Bombeck, Humorist
February 21, 1927 - April 22, 1996
Erma Louise (Harris) Bombeck was born in Dayton, Ohio, on February 21, 1927. Raised a strict Catholic, Erma would put her faith to use many times throughout the course of her life. Her father, a crane operator, died of a stroke when Erma was just 9-years old, leaving the family in near-poverty like conditions after their home and furniture were repossessed by the bank. At the age of 20, Bombeck was diagnosed with polycistic kidney disease, a hereditary disorder which causes cysts to form on the kidneys. Told that she would one day suffer kidney failure, Erma went on with her life, destined not to be controlled by her disease.
Longing to be a journalist, she enrolled in and graduated from the University of Dayton.In 1949, Erma took her first job in the field of journalism, as a reporter for the Ohio Journal Herald. That same year, she married Bill Bombeck, whom she had met in college. After just five years with the paper, Erma and Bill were ready to start a family, and she left her career behind. The couple had three children during the 1950s. During this same time, Erma's mother, a factory worker, passed away. As her children reached school age, Erma spent months talking to the editor of a local paper, hawking the idea of producing a daily humour column, focusing on the life of a suburban family. The editor of the paper was not thrilled with the idea of a homemaker column written from the perspective of a 37-year old unemployed journalist, but agreed anyway. "At Wit's End," debuted in the "Kettering-Oakwood Times" in 1964. Erma was paid $3 for each column and found a huge following in housewives around Ohio. As news of the humorous column spread, "At Wit's End" became a nationally syndicated column in 1965, running twice weekly in some 500 newspapers. It soon became three times; by 1968 it was syndicated in 200 newspapers and by the late 1970s in over 800.
In 1971, Erma and Bill and the family packed up and moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona. For the next 30 years, Erma wrote about being a mother, wife, journalist, and woman. She began giving speeches at Universities and writing books, made up largely of her popular column.
In 1991, Erma was diagnosed with breast cancer and checked into the hospital. She underwent a mastectomy shortly thereafter. Two years later, her kidneys began to fail, and Erma began a daily routine of dialysis, which she underwent at home, four times each day. Erma's doctors informed her she needed a new kidney and she was immediately added to the kidney transplant list. After three years of waiting and daily treatments, Erma Bombeck received a kidney transplant on April 4, 1996. For the first time in her life, she addressed her disease with her readers, writing about illness, compassion, and suffering. Her readers responded with thousands of letters of their own.
Erma Bombeck died of complications from the kidney transplant April 22, 1996. She was 69 years old. She is survived by her husband of 47 years and three children, Betsy, Andy, and Matt.
During the course of her career, Bombeck published more than four thousand syndicated columns in 900 papers nationwide, wrote 15 best-selling books, and became on of the world's most beloved humorist columns. Among her numerous books are At Wit's End (1967), I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression (1973), The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank (1976), If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978), Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession (1983), and When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home (1991).
This was written by Erma Bombeck at her learning of her terminal cancer.
Erma's Angel
Given another shot at life;
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the "GOOD" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment realizing that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."
There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's"...
but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute ... look at it and really see it ... live it ... and never give it back.
Erma Bombeck
