PHOTO BY DANI EL LIPPITT

Lovebirds Allen and Arleen Platt.

its a dvan-

Through sickness and in health,
these couples thrive.

MEGAN SWOYER

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

es' show that
marked pluses
for wedded. couples when it comes
to mental health and longevity.
Researchers also point out that
sound relationships can move the
overall happiness meter in a pos-
itive direction.
But what happens when a part-
ner gets sick or becomes de-
pressed? A sampling of metro-area
love birds reveals that a dose of
sweetie pie is indeed just what the
doctor ordered.
When Arleen Platt learned that
a lump on her breast was cancer-
ous, she didn't panic. Throughout
her five-year battle with breast
cancer, she never once asked the
proverbial question: "Why me?"
Ms. Platt, who was 28 at the time,
avoided negativity and says that
her best medicine was her hus-
band and her family.
"My husband Allen was with
me the whole time," the Southfield

resident recalls. "We would just
tell ourselves that our love was
strong enough to get through any-
thing." Furthermore, Ms. Platt
says that her two daughters, who
were 7 months old and 3 years old
at the time she was diagnosed,
gave her additional strength.
Ms. Platt's cancer was more tol-
erable because she had a large cir-
cle of family and friends. The
patient's husband, a West Bloom-
field-area dentist, went through
every test, every treatment and
every surgery with her. Even her
mother-in-law, who lives in Israel,
flew in for some of the surgeries
to offer Ms. Platt support.
For patients like Ms. Platt, the
best medicine is love. The remedy
is as simple as a Barbra Streisand
sentiment. "People need people,"
says Dr. Sydney Heisler, senior
staff psychiatrist at Henry Ford
Healthcare Services' Maplegrove
Treatment Center in West Bloom-
field. That theory is enforced by
the "proliferation of self-help

Megan Swoyer is editorial
consultant to Style magazine.

POWER OF LOVE page 76