‘When God gives you lemons, you have to figure out how to make lemonade’

NOMI KALTMANN meets two Melbourne women who have drawn on their resilience from long-term health problems to create something positive out of lockdown

WALKING AROUND MELBOURNE these past few months, the city has had a muted feel to it. After overtaking Buenos Aires as the most locked down city in the world, Melbourne’s usual vibrant energy was missing as people hibernated at home with all schools, shops, restaurants, theatres closed and recreational activities cancelled for months on end.

While it’s no secret that many people in the city were suffering, some Melbournians had already found the resilience to handle the curveball that lockdown wreaked on so many lives.

For Minna Lederberger, 60, a resident of East St Kilda, her deep faith helps her to see the hand of God in all aspects of her life. While the lockdown has been challenging for her and her family, she does not believe that any situation, even the protracted Covid lockdowns, occur by chance.

“God orchestrates events in your life to happen a certain way: if something happens, it means that God meant for the situation to happen to you, there is no such thing as a coincidence,” she says.

Her belief has been tested previously.

In 2012 while on holiday with her family in Queensland, Lederberger contracted an obscure virus, Acquired Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) which attacked her body.

“At the same time [doctors] diagnosed me with HLH, they also diagnosed pneumonia, streptococcal A infection and an ear infection,” says Lederberger. In a coma for over 12 days and on life support in the ICU, she was saved by a combined treatment of chemotherapy and steroids as well as blood and platelet transfusions.

“All these viruses combined put a huge stress on my system, [and] as each organ started to shut down, blood left my extremities to pool around vital organs. Thankfully, blood returned to my hands, but unfortunately [blood did not return] to my lower limbs,” she says.

Her legs were amputated from the knee down. She was only 52 years of age. These days she walks with the assistance of prosthetics.

“After my surgery to remove my legs, I would thank God every single night, I would say: thank you for letting me shower and toilet and feed myself and for all the things I could still do…things that people can sometimes take for granted,” she says.

While recognising the hardships many people have faced over the extended Covid lockdowns, Lederberger tries to look for the positive in every situation. “I don’t get depressed by much anymore,” she says. 

“After I lost my legs, I let [go of] a lot of things that are not important, a lot of materialistic things. I learnt that you cannot judge people harshly, you have to be kinder, more thoughtful.”

Shelley Kline, a 48-year-old Melbourne mother of three, was diagnosed with Uveitis, an auto immune disease when she was eight years old. It attacked her right eye and she experienced severe inflammation, pain and eventually lost her sight in the eye.

She underwent a series of complications and eye surgeries over a 35-year period, but none of these helped and her eye was unbearably painful. In 2018, faced with ongoing pain, she made the difficult decision to have the eye removed.

However, even after her eye was removed, Kline experiences ongoing neuropathic pain in her orbit which is very difficult to manage and continues to have a profound impact on her daily routine.

She says her significant life experience has put her in a better position than others to deal with the crippling lockdowns in Melbourne.

“I always look for the silver lining,” says Kline, who lives in Elsternwick. “I’m a glass half-full person and I’m always telling my children how important this perspective is. When I wake up every morning, I practice gratitude. It’s how I cope with my pain every day.”

While Covid lockdowns are certainly difficult for her, with the added responsibility of home schooling her three school-age children, it has had some unexpected benefits.

“With my chronic condition, I have always felt like I have missed out on some things—school programs, events or going out, because I don’t feel well,” she says.

“Before Covid, I worried what would happen if I wasn’t well enough to roster or watch my son’s basketball game, However, with Covid, I no longer feel those same feelings - as everyone is in the same position as me. That pressure has been lifted.”

“Covid really helped me to slow down and take it easier,” says Kline. “The pressure was off, as everything was cancelled. For the first time, I feel equal.”

After Kline had her eye removed, she thought she would wear a prosthesis, but the nerve damage makes it difficult to wear a glass or acrylic eye without immense pain, so she now wears a patch.

“Sometimes I think: why is God doing this to me? What does it all mean? But I am a very optimistic person,” says Kline.

Kline believes that having experienced such severe health problems as a child, part of her life’s mission is to ensure that children receive excellent treatment and equal access to the finest doctors in the country.

“I never take for granted how privileged I have been to receive such amazing care and I want to give back [to the community] through my involvement at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH).”

As part of this commitment to giving back to the community, Kline is a member of the Royal Children Hospital Auxiliaries.

“My role is to introduce new forms of philanthropy to the next generation…I helped to create a Giving Circle, where 12 families donated the same amount of money to create impact collectively,” she says. “This [donation] supported a part-time psychologist in an intensive care unit at [the hospital].”

Kline believes she has gained resilience because of the hardships she has experienced in her life.

“I pinch myself sometimes because I am so lucky to have found the most loving and supportive husband who would do anything to take my pain away - and we have three gorgeous children,” she says.

Undergoing significant life experiences has helped both Lederberger and Kline cope with the challenges that Melbourne has undergone these last two years.

Both women acknowledge that despite the difficulties, their previous experiences have helped them to see no matter the situation, there is always room to help others and find ways to help those in the community who are less fortunate.

Prior to lockdown, Lederberger’s daily schedule was packed full of volunteering, including counselling other new amputees undergoing rehabilitation at Caulfield Hospital, and guiding non-Jewish groups learning about faith at the Jewish Museum of Australia.

“When the lockdown happened, I burst into tears, I said to God: ‘you gave me all these opportunities to do good work, and now everything has fallen away, what now?’” she says.

However, by drawing on the resilience learnt from her significant life experiences, Lederberger pushed through the difficulties.

“When the mask mandate came in, I said: ‘well, that’s an easy way to stop lashon hara [speaking gossip], how great is that!’

“I learnt from my Holocaust survivor parents that when God gives you lemons, you then have to figure out how to make lemonade,” she adds.

“When I look back on this period, I think, maybe we all had to go through a period of refinement, where we all just sat in our homes during lockdown and had the opportunity to look at ourselves and see how we can be the best versions of ourselves.”

Photo: Minna Lederberger