How’s that for an interesting title, Sounded like Katherine Hepburn? I’ll get around to explaining in a bit, but first a little lead up to that preposterous title. This past week I was under the weather, enough to stay home from church last Sunday and then again remain home on Wednesday evening, still not feeling well. I’d come down with some kind of “bug”, no reason to get particular; sinus drip so bad that going to sleep wasn’t possible for any length of time since I had to clear my throat to keep my lungs clear.
I took a
Z-Pack and some Ivermectin to clear it up and that worked fairly well. One challenge was that weeks ago I’d promised
to cover a Temple Shift for a friend so he could go out of town on family
business. That meant I’d be pulling a
double shift, my regular shift from 11:00am until 2:00pm followed by his
regular shift from 2:00pm until 6:00pm.
I felt well enough to work at the Temple; but was concerned that my
energy levels might be taxed with the extra hours.
Turns out
I was right.
I won’t go
into too much detail; however, while completing an Endowment Session I noticed my
right hand began shaking uncontrollably.
It might have been a bit disconcerting for the sister with whom I was
working with; but I don’t think my grip on her hand was too severe and the
tremors passed without causing too much concern.
Later in
the afternoon while performing ordinances in the Initiatory area it got even
more interesting. At first, I noticed my voice changed; sounding as if I’d
become much older with a rattling in between spoken words. As this progressed it became almost comical,
recalling how Katherine Hepburn’s voice crackled as her near perfect diction
devolved while portraying her character in the movie, Rooster Cogburn.
I mention
this because, as a Temple Ordinance Worker, I make an effort to enunciate each
word of these sacred ordinances in such a way as to let the patron hearing
these words take in their full importance.
While Temple patrons are acting vicariously for someone who has passed
through the veil of mortality; the individual for whom they are acting for, we
believe, are attentively hearing these blessings and promises for the first and
only time.
So, this
past Friday as irregularities with my voice began to become increasingly
advanced, as if by age or affliction, I had to wonder what was going on with my
health. I felt my right hand begin to
tremble while I continued with the ordinance, a mild yet decidedly rhythmic motion
that I couldn’t stop until withdrawing it from atop the patron’s head. This, along with the alteration of my voice,
was more than a little alarming. I
noticed my breathing became more shallow, unable to complete longer sentences
without pausing, each word lost perfect modulation and was replaced with highs
and lows creating syllables never included in those words.
I finished
the shift, grateful to have survived the embarrassing loss of voice control,
chalking this up as part of growing older.
When I got home and had a chance to look up Katherine Hepburn’s
interesting voice issues, that’s when I found there’s a medical term for what I’d
experienced.
Here’s
what the Harvard Medical School published:
“Essential
tremor is less well known than Parkinson's disease, but it's far more
common.
For
many, the late actress Katherine Hepburn provided an indelible public image of
essential tremor. Her quavering voice and trembling hands unmistakably betrayed
the disorder.
Essential
tremor affects
about 5% of people over age 50. The intensity of the shaking from essential
tremor can be mild to very significant. Also the tremor can vary in location,
being most prominent in the hands, head or voice.” (emphasis added)
For some
reason this information put my mind at ease. I hadn’t imagined the odd experience, and I
was correct in having compared what my ears were hearing with how Katherine
Hepburn’s voice sounded later in her career.
