The Ghost of Gehrig

I have phobias. I am afraid of flying. I despise insects. But I do not suffer fear of ghosts. At my age, I still recall my mother's words after childhood nightmares: "Be afraid of the living, not of the dead." So I was oblivious when I met the Ghost of Gehrig for the first time as an intern during ICU rounds. He had possessed an elderly man, wasted his muscles, immobilized his body, and sucked away his breathing and speech. I ignored Gehrig's Ghost on our first encounter. This man was old, and the thought that we are all mortal was a common, if superficial, way to cope.