"Val
Middlebrook: An Inspirational Desert Woman" by Irene March-Davison
The Desert Woman, Palm Springs, CA. Vol.
7, No. 7, Aug/Sept. 2000
I
N S P I R A T I 0 N A L
D E S E R T W 0 M E N
VAL
MIDDLEBROOK:
Defining Her Ultimate Victory
By
Irene March-Davison
On many occasions,
I have greeted Val Middlebrook at The Desert Woman's monthly teas,
which she attends regularly. This attractive, vivacious brunette
always appears energetic, vital, and sparkling. Then I read her
published autobiography and was shocked and amazed to learn of
the "torture chamber" she called her body, betrayed
and invisibly ravaged by devastating illness, major emergency
surgeries, and near-death episodes. How does she do it?
This
unusual desert woman, nevertheless, was briefly even a race car
driver and continues to enjoy an active career in management and
communication. A handwriting analyst once told her, "You
have so much empathy; if you see someone standing in ice water,
your feet turn blue!"
Her
empathy has served Val Middlebrook well and it goes to the very
core of her being. It has helped her cope — growing up in Little
Rock, Arkansas — as the unwanted fourth child in an often hostile
family of three older siblings; with an unstable father who was
prone to drunken violence; a dominating aunt who always belittled
her and initiated actual beatings. And later, with an unloving,
intimidating, mismatched husband of 31 years.
As
if that wasn't enough to depress one's spirit and break one's
heart, Val contracted tetanus (lockjaw) in 1955. Spasms, cramps,
adhesions formed all throughout her organs, resulting in decades
of pain, life-threatening crises, and multiple allergies (which
persist to this day).
Back
then, while she was gardening at her house in Long Beach, a discarded
lead pencil punctured her sandaled foot. Two injections of live
horse serum — ironically, to prevent tetanus infection — changed
her from a busy, healthy, cheerful mother of two small children
to a semi-invalid survivor, nursed by her mother, ignored by her
indifferent husband, and seeking relief from medical specialists,
from practitioners of alternative medicine, and from many expensive
modalities and medications.
In
1958, to change her life, and to supplement the family income
in order to pay for her medical treatments, Val went to work for
Tupperware as a home party planner in the emerging plastics industry.
Despite her severe afflictions, this began a long, successful
career — selling, recruiting, managing, training, and traveling
extensively to indoctrinate dealers and managers.
 |
| Val's
Little Rock High School, Arkansas, graduation picture.
|
|
 |
After
12 years, Val trained to sell real estate, but was instead diverted
and recruited in 1972 by Rubbermaid Party Plan Division as sales
development manager for the Western states. Traveling often in
this advanced position did nothing to improve or save her marriage
so, in 1976, when her divorce was final, she moved to Arizona
and then Oregon and eventually terminated her job.
Returning
to Southern California in 1980, and being extremely sensitive
to cold and ocean dampness, she lived in Yorba Linda and once
again honed her considerable goal-setting skills. She became an
independent sales consultant, writing manuals and training national
sales managers.
She
achieved her written goals of recovering from most of the aftermath
of tetanus in her body, and no longer tolerating intimidating
people. Val says, "Writing down goals is like putting coveralls
on a dream. When you write a goal down, it's no longer just a
wish — it becomes a reality!" After several motivational
and self-improvement courses, this courageous woman knew she could
no longer be the "enslaved giver," so passively dealing
with bad-mannered people most of her life.
She
also met her goals of again owning a beautiful home and sharing
it, in a true partnership, with a caring, supportive, educated
man whom she met at a party following one of these courses. After
a five-year friendship, Val Middler and handsome Dr. R. David
Middlebrook were married on Easter in 1985. They own a second
home in Palm Springs.
Val
continued working as an executive recruiter, again starting a
business in her home. In 1989, the Middlebrooks formed Ardem Associates
to sponsor David's courses in analog design for engineers in his
industry. With David's encouragement and collaboration, Val tells
her remarkable story in a book they published in June entitled
Val's Victory: Defeat was NEVER an Option. She dedicates her book
to her two grandchildren, "the joys of my life." Like
herself, Val's daughter, Trudy, also gave birth to a daughter
and a son.
She
firmly believes..."You have to close one door before another
one will open." Valeria Middler Middlebrook is an astounding
example of how this works — in transcending overwhelming obstacles,
setting goals, and then winning the ultimate victory for mind-body-spirit:
"having it all!"
