Essay

Fifty-five words can capture a significant moment

By Colleen T. Fogarty, M.D., M.Sc. (R’95)

Fifty-five word stories are brief efforts of creative writing that utilize elements of poetry, prose or both to capture key experiences of health care. I first learned about 55-word stories in 2007, when Family Medicine, the journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, put out a call for submissions of 55-word stories. I tried my hand at a few, submitted one, and it was accepted for publication.
           
Since that time, I have submitted 55-word stories for review at the Department of Family Medicine Professional Writing Seminar, where psychology postdoctoral fellows, family medicine fellows and faculty gather monthly to review and critique each others’ writing. Several colleagues have been inspired to also try the format. Motivated by the power of writing such brief stories, I was propelled to learn as much as I could about the origins of the form as well as application to health care narratives.
           
In the mid-1990’s, the late editor Steve Moss developed the form “55 Fiction” and published a collection, The World’s Shortest Stories. In the Journal of the American Medical Association in April 2000, Anne Scheetz, M.D., and Mary E. Fry, M.D., adapted the form to medical narratives and set forth the goal of 55-word stories in health care: “To tell—in 55 words exactly—a story that helps us to understand, or to appreciate, something about a patient or about an experience of health care.” Since then, Family Medicine has featured two articles containing 55-word stories and Families, Systems, and Health has begun a quarterly feature.
           
I have presented this story-writing format to family medicine faculty at a national meeting and to family medicine residents during core teaching, and each time have been impressed with the emotion, collective breadth of topic, and individual depth of the stories written. The writers of the stories have noted satisfaction with expressing an important story. Listeners and readers have shared in an important moment from the writer’s experience. The brevity of the pieces seems to help focus the key ideas of the story and adds to the impact of the narrative. Although the number 55 is largely arbitrary, having a focused word limit helps writers hone their stories and choose the strongest wording possible to communicate their ideas. These ultra-short stories are an accessible format with which to reflect and share experiences within health care and training settings. Here are some examples:

The Power of Prayer

She asked me to pray with her.

Acting has never been my strong suit but I agreed. 

With her thin hand in mine we bowed our heads and she spoke softly.

When it was over we both felt better. 
She thanked me for my lie and I smiled. 
It was the least I could do.

Christian Wightman, M.D.
Family Medicine Resident

 

Her Routine Visit

She comes in monthly
On her walker
An hour early
Clear blue eyes look at me expectantly
Sunken and sad

She tells me her paranoid tales
Of stolen medicines
Crazy neighbors and lazy nurses
As she struggles to hide
Her failing memory
Her bruises from her falls
Prideful and stubborn
Desperately clinging to her independence
“I’ll see you next month”
She says as she slowly makes
Her way down the hallway

Liz Kwon, M.D., M.P.H.
Family Medicine Resident

 

Diagnosis

I’ve stabbed her.
“This is something we’re not going to be able to fix.”
Her tears—she walks toward the window, away from him.
I’ve used my most certain voice.
He had to know.
She had to know.
I’ve implied … but this time, they hear my certain voice.
One tear rolls from his right eye.

Pebble Kranz, M.D.
Family Medicine Resident

 

A Happy Boy

You were always a happy boy.
Smiling, your deep dimples filling the room.
I watched you grow from a shy toddler to a teenager,
Your future so bright.

Today I sit with your mother,
Her pain spilling onto the floor.
I have no words to comfort.
Yesterday you died; gunned down in the street.

Laurie J. Donohue, M.D. (R’94)
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine

 

Chronic Disease Management

Multiple uncontrolled chronic conditions
I inwardly sigh, then inquire hopefully,

“What are your goals for health?”

“I don’t have one … just take my medicines
and don’t think about it.”

“I’m saving for my funeral, you know.
I don’t want my kids to worry about it.
It don’t matter to me if I live or die.”

Colleen T. Fogarty, M.D., M.Sc. (R’95)
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine

 

Postpartum Revelation

Two miracles bundled in blankets of pink.

A mother bruised by lashings of fist, tongue, forceful lips.

In their faces possibilities; in hers, dreams crushed.

Exploration leads to layers of pain peeled away.
Strength and hope is reborn.
“My patterns will not be theirs,”
as she dialed for a new chance, new life, new self-concept.

Tanya White-Davis, Ph.D. (FLW’09)