TEACHABLE MOMENT
A special education instructor who retired after undergoing brain surgery hopes her book imparts lessons about treating others with similar injuries
On July 7, 2009, Janet Johnson Schliff had brain surgery at New York University Hospital to remove a benign tumor the size of an orange that had left her unable to work as a special education teacher — something she’d done for all of her professional life.
Interviewed recently at a Kingston diner, Schliff said she chose to retire in 2007 after working for 25 years at Ulster County BOCES and in Pine Plains and Rondout Valley schools, largely because the tumor’s side effects had made it impossible for the award-winning educator to provide her students with the education she felt they deserved.
The surgery relieved Schliff of debilitating headaches and a condition known as mysophobia, or fear of germs. “As soon as the brain tumor was taken out, the intense headaches went away and so did the mysophobia . ... As soon as it was taken out I’m done walking around with my hand sanitizer everywhere I go and all of that,” she said recently. “It’s been a journey.”
On Dec. 21, 2017, Schliff’s journey took a new turn when the book she wrote about her experience was published. “What Ever Happened to My White Picket Fence? My Brain Injury from My Massive Brain Tumor” contains nearly 400 pages of stories and information she hopes will “help other families and people with brain injuries to get along better and to be productive in our society with a disability.”
In the book’s preface, Schliff,
57, of Lake Katrine, wrote, “If I, a former special education teacher, who taught more than one child with a brain injury, knew as little about brain injury as I did before my own (damaged temporal and frontal lobes), then more work had to be done to get the information out there.
“I am no expert when it comes to research or technology as far as the brain is concerned. What I am expert in is what happened to me, what is still taking place to this very day, and what I have learned from many others
with brain injuries.”
Schliff said she believes the book is making an impact. Some of her readings at area bookstores have been jam packed and the book has sold out more than five times on Amazon.com. At her readings, Schliff said she’s often told by attendees that the book has helped them better understand a friend, a co-worker, a family member or a child.
A September 2014 article about Schliff written by Paula Ann Mitchell and published in the Freeman was noticed by Douglas Winslow Cooper an author, editor and writing coach who wound up editing Schliff’s book, she said.
In an editor’s note, Cooper described Schliff’s process. “Imagine having to relinquish the career that you love, due to a growing morbid fear of germs. Imagine being cured of that by a radical brain operation ... leaving the part of the brain in the immediate vicinity of the excision damaged both by the previous pressure from the tumor and by the loss of brain matter due to the operation,” he wrote.
Cooper continued, suggesting what readers might gain from reading Schliff’s book, “She and others like her want not to be treated as so very different from the rest of us. Just given a bit more slack, a bit more care, a bit more love. So much hurt and misunderstanding could be prevented if people were a bit more careful. Those who read Janet’s story will want to do just that from now on.”
One example of “a bit more care” cited by Schliff is just slowing down. “Even people in the care-giving world (sometimes) don’t understand,” she said. “I go into a doctor’s office and they’re talking rapid fire to me.”
Part of Schliff’s adjustment to life post-surgery has been a realization that some things will never be the same. Asked about where she would like to be photographed for this story, Schliff suggested a portrait with her dog Happy in the bleachers at Dietz Stadium in Kingston. As a teacher, Schliff said she had spent many hours
“I used to be there with all of the crowds and students and the big banners and the flags and the snacks and the water bottles and the kids with all of their medals. And now it’s me and the dog and that’s the way it’s always going to be,” she said.
Upcoming readings of “What Ever Happened to My White Picket Fence? My Brain Injury from My Massive Brain Tumor” are currently scheduled at:
• 7 p.m. May 14 at the Staatsburg Library, 70 Old Post Road, Staatsburg.
• Noon June 9 at the Mountain Top Library, 6093 Main St., Tannersville.
• 7 p.m. June 13 at the Esopus Library, 128 Canal S., Port Ewen.
“What I am expert in is what happened to me, what is still taking place to this very day, and what I have learned from many others with brain injuries.” — Janet Johnson Schliff