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Most everyone can recall some catchphrase repeated over and over in their youth. For Wilmington’s David Greenfield, it was a saying his father frequently used — It Is What It Is. Now Deal With It — now, the title of Greenfield’s memoir.
Retired from AstraZeneca, Greenfield has certainly had a lot to “deal with” over his 81 years: first crippling polio in his youth, then a collapsed lung not once but twice, recovery from testicular cancer and the premature death of his wife, Pam. Then in 2017, when he was 75, polio suddenly reappeared. The reappearance acts as the starting point of this inspiring memoir.
As he did after every other health crisis, Greenfield built himself back up through tough therapy and gym workouts, the latter often in the company of his best friend, local realtor Ernie Delle Donne. “In fact, I was getting ready to go to the gym one morning recently, and I woke up not feeling well,” Greenfield relates. He went with a neighbor to a walk-in clinic and was immediately put into an ambulance and was on his way to the hospital. “I was having a stroke,” he says, “but I’m already getting better.”
The message of the book is not that you can conquer everything in life, but that we shouldn’t too readily accept defeat. “I think it’s a hopeful book,” Greenfield says. “The message is that you can get over most anything.”
Because of his age, Greenfield is among the very few polio survivors that remain today. His story reveals a greater journey of discovery in modern medicine, including some long latent effects of polio that only revealed themselves as he entered his 80s.
If you’re looking for an inspiring read with local connections, you can find It Is What It Is. Now Deal With It on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org.
Related: “Summer Triangle” Is a Story of Healing Set in Rehoboth Beach
