Claire
and Dora Williamson were wealthy spinster sisters in their 30s. They
had traveled the world and knew all the comforts of their time. And yet,
they were, in a sense, unhappy. Convinced they had medical issues that
kept them from enjoying life to the fullest, the sisters were always in
search of the next best cure. And so they were drawn to "Dr." Linda
Burfield Hazzard, the woman who believed in the fasting cure. Linda
Hazzard was a formidable woman -- a strong woman able to convince others
to see things her way. She did so with the Williamson sisters,
convincing them her fast cure would succeed where modern medicine had
failed. She promised them a return to full health. And they believed
her.
It was a decision both would come to regret, either in life
or in death. The following months would find the sisters wasting away
to mere skeletons as they "enjoyed" a diet of tomato "broth" and a
regime of intense internal baths (a.k.a. enemas). It was only through
the rescue of their childhood nurse that one of the sisters managed to
survive.
***Read this book for book club. This book (which
takes place in the county where I live) was very intriguing. I was
engrossed in the book and amazed at how these sisters were hoodwinked by
this "doctor". Maybe it's the foodie in me, but if someone told me I
was to subsist on tomato broth for 40-some days, I'd laugh in their face
and say goodbye! This book is definitely one of those examples of how
truth is sometimes way more haunting (and twisted) than fiction!
