Proust Questionnaire: Elizabeth Diane Shaffer's answers

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On Tue, 15 Mar 16 21:56:53 UTC Elizabeth Diane Shaffer (0) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: To be separated from my parents and brothers.
Where would you like to live?: On a farm like the one I would have grown up on.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: To live, to breathe, to dream, to be healthy and whole.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: I indulge in feeling insecure about my physical handicaps.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol; and Sleeping Beauty because a girl can "dream."
Who are your favorite characters in history?: Einstein who did not speak until age 3; Franklin Roosevelt who suffered from polio; and Helen Keller who was deaf, blind, and mute.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: Any female who beats the odds and surmounts any physical/mental handicap such as Helen Keller and Frida Kahlo.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: Jo March from Little Women (willing to do anything for family); Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (asks the tough questions); Nancy Drew (smart, could solve crimes & maybe my disease); & Charlotte from Charlotte's Web ( teaches strength, compassion)
Your favorite painter?: Monet's paintings are quite soothing, but Picasso saw people in a way others did not.
Your favorite musician?: My mother singing me to sleep.
The quality you most admire in a man?: Quiet strength like my father possesses.
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Gentleness and one who wears her heart for the world to see like my mother does.
Your favorite virtue?: Humility and the ability to live and appreciate the present moment.
Your favorite occupation?: Researchers looks for cures to debilitating diseases.
Who would you have liked to be?: I would have liked to have been healthy, whole, and lived a long life.
Your most marked characteristic?: I possessed an open spinal canal which created a hole on my back and a sac of fluied which covered this hole. My legs were paralyzed, my hips broken, and fluid made my head swell 2" larger than my momma's.
What do you most value in your friends?: Their sweet remembrances and love for me--even though I am no longer alive.
What is your principle defect?: The bones of my spine did not form around my spinal chord, fluid leaked out a hole in my back, I was paralyzed, & hydrocephalus occurred.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: Never to have lived a productive life, never to have spoken, and never to have grown up with my brothers.
What would you like to be?: a whole, healthy, and vibrant woman.
What is your favorite color?: Garnet...my birthstone.
What is your favorite flower?: Carnation (my birth flower) which symbolizes remembrance, but also Snowdrops because they symbolize the hope of a new life.
What is your favorite bird?: The blue bird symbolizes happiness.
Who are your favorite prose writers?: Because I only lived 13 months, I choose children's books; therefore, I prefer any children's book authors.
Who are your favorite poets?: Any children's poet--probably Shel Silverstein would be my favorite because he knows that children "know the place where the sidewalk ends."
Who are your heroes in real life?: Doctors and researchers who have found ways to treat newborns with Spina Bifida--as well as physical therapists and occupational therapists who work with handicapped children.
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: Any female who beats the odds and surmounts any physical/mental handicap such as Helen Keller and Frida Kahlo.
What are your favorite names?: The names of my parents and brothers--Doug, Karen, Greg, Mark, and David.
What is it you most dislike?: Disease and doctors who won't treat sick patients or who poke their finger in the back of a child and say, "What do you want me to do about this?"
What historical figures do you most despise?: Those world leaders who despise and exterminate handicapped individuals.
What event in military history do you most admire?: Not one event, but I admire all military personnel who suffer from physical disfigurements but who still triumph on.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: The ability to walk and talk.
How would you like to die?: I died suffering as infection ravaged by little body... I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
What is your present state of mind?: I am free from all pain and paralysis.
What is your motto?: The human spirit is one of ability, perseverance and courage that no disability can steal away.

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