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How Do You Be A Friend To A Friend Who's Sick?

Nadine Markova

Illness is an unfortunate part of the human condition.  At one time or another all of us come to know a friend or relative who is sick.

How should we react?  What should we do?  Should we visit? How long should the visit be?

Host Don Marsh talked with Letty Cottin Pogrebin about these issues and more.  Pogrebin is the author of How to be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick.  She says illness is friendship’s proving ground.

Pogrebin came up with the idea for her latest book after her recent bout with breast cancer.  She was intrigued by the way her friends and family reacted to her cancer and began talking to her fellow patients about what they “wished their friends knew about how to comfort, help, and even just talk to them without making them feel different or doomed.”

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Alex is the executive producer of "St. Louis on the Air" at St. Louis Public Radio.
Mary Edwards is a producer for St. Louis Public Radio's broadcast program, "St. Louis Symphony."
Don Marsh served as host of St. Louis Public Radio’s “St. Louis on the Air" from 2005 to 2019, bringing discussions of significant topics to listeners' ears at noon Monday through Friday. Don has been an active journalist for 58 years in print, radio and television. He has won 12 Regional Emmy Awards for writing, reporting, and producing. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, was inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame in 2013, and named “Media Person of the Year” by the St. Louis Press Club in 2015. He has published three books: his most recent, “Coming of Age, Liver Spots and All: A Humorous Look at the Wonders of Getting Old,” “Flash Frames: Journey of a Journeyman Journalist” and “How to be Rude (Politely).” He holds an honorary Doctor of Arts and Letters degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.