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89
Six Months
to Live!
This was the sentence the doctors pronounced over Bebe Daniels, and this story tells for the first time what she did to prove her courage.
By Helen Louise Walker
WHAT would you do if you knew you had just six months to live? That question has intrigued the imagination of almost every one in the world, at some time or other. , Novels, plays, and short stories have been written around it. It has beeii the topic of discussion at a thousand gatherings. It has been answered flippantly or thoughtfully, according to the mood and temperament of the speaker.
One person would make great haste to try to finish his work in the world — write the novel he has been considering for years, but had never got around to doing.
Another would quit his job, draw all his money from the bank, and start out to see as much as possible of the world he was so soon to leave.
Another would throw discretion to the winds, and attempt to run the gamut of all the emotions, secure in the thought that he would not live to face the consequences of his acts.
Still another would turn to religion, and prepare for his conception of the life to come.
By their answers to this question ye shall know them. At least you will be able to tell quite a lot about them !
_ But Bebe Daniels put this question to herself in grim earnest. Four years ago Bebe was under sentence of death — with six months to go.
She had undergone an operation for appendicitis. Afterward she had disobeyed the doctors' orders, and had done all the forbidden things — had gone swimming, ridden horseback, driven her car, and played tennis.
"I felt all right," she relates, "and I couldn't see any sense in acting like an invalid." This attitude, I might add, is characteristic of Bebe.
Presently, however, it became apparent that Bebe was not well. She
Bebe Daniels' outlook on life was altered by a situation usually found only in fiction.
was losing weight so rapidly that her company complained. She was told to see a doctor, to take a vacation and try to gain a little flesh.
She went to her family physician with the idea of getting a tonic. His gravity during the examination prompted her to ask him for the truth. Convinced that she wanted it, he told her that she would probably live six months. They would not give up
hope entirely, of course, but ■
"Letting me down easily!" thought Bebe, trying to adjust her mind to this incredible situation.
"I did the usual thing," she says. "I went to see two other doctors, hoping for a reversal of the verdict. None of the three was acquainted with the others. But each one told me the same thing, and each set the time at six months.
"I swore them all to secrecy — I did not want my family or my company to hear about it — and then I sat down to consider what I should do. I was not at all impressed with the faint hope they held out. I felt that that was merely to make it easier for me.