A Shining Life

This weekend I went home to visit my family, and in particular to see my sister, Amy, perform in the play, These Shining Lives. (As a side note, I also got a fabulous, early Thanksgiving dinner!) Honestly, I had low expectations of the play; I had read a short description of the play and it seemed a bit dull and sad. But, of course, I knew Amy would do a great job, so I was excited to see her performance. She played the lead, the part of Catherine Donohue. Catherine was a young woman who was employed by the Radium Dial Company, a company that provided radium-painted clock and watch dials in the 1920's, in the small Illinois town of Ottawa, during the time of the depression, when jobs that paid as well were hard to come by. Ultimately, the radium killed the women. Because so much of their illness was covered up my the company doctors and because lawyers were afraid to help them, Catherine was one of the few who actually testified in court and ultimately won, leading to laws that eventually were created to protect workers.

I was brought to tears--not only by my sister's phenomenal portrayal of this brave wife and mother (Amy really was SO good)--but also by the tragedy that happened so close to home less than 100 years ago. I had never heard this story, so I'm thankful theater brings to life stories like this...thought I'd share with all of you.

If you want to read more, you can do your own research...here are a few links about it:

"Radium City" Documentary (1986)

"The Case of the Living Dead Women"-collection of articles

"Radium Timeline"- series of local articles, also notes there was just a monument built last year