Nadja was married to a very talented and many-degreed math teacher. During the Bush II years, his salary was slashed, and he found it harder and harder to find teaching positions. 18 months ago he was laid off. Nadja worked part time with me - no benefits of course. She was a dedicated afficionado of natural healing, but she did not disdain traditional medicine. She just couldn't afford it.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Well heck! According to George Walker Bush hard stuff like mathermatics was too hard and he banned it. Didn't want anyone to be too smart. Fact is, he hated smart people 'cuz they never voted for him.

.... She knew she was having a problem. The clinic she went to - it was hard to get in and not really free - told her that she had endometriosis and an ovarian cyst. They recommended frequent scans to monitor it. She went as often as she could. But as their finances worsened, it was often a choice of paying the electricity bill or getting that scan.

Eventually, she was told that the situation was worsening and she needed laporascopic surgery. It took her weeks to find a surgeon who would take payments, and she had to go to a different state for the surgery. She left work the day before it saying she should be back in a few weeks - we'd get together then. I loved talking to her - she was one of those people who always believed things could get better, that there were solutions out there - it was a matter of looking hard enough.

She never came back. The "cyst" was a tumor; Nadja had Stage IV ovarian cancer and she lived 7 and a half months. She died in the hospital, in the arms of her 11 year old son and her husband.

Ain't that a typical sweet ending of life in good old Christian America?