Days of Grace (29 page)

Camera’s sixth birthday, New York City, December 21, 1992
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

In the yard of our home in Mount Kisco, New York, 1989
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

At the Westchester County Fair, New York, 1989
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

With Camera’s godfather, Doug Stein (far left), and Eddie Mandeville on Super Bowl Sunday, January 31, 1993
Harriette Mandeville

On the beach, Elenthera, the Bahamas, 1990
Club Med Photo

Eleuthera, the Bahamas, 1990
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

With Dr. Henry F. Murray at New York Hospital, January 4, 1993, discussing my PCP diagnosis
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

In the coronary-care section, New York Hospital, September 1992
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Mayor Dinkins visits me in the coronary-care section, New York Hospital, late summer 1992
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Working on
Days of Grace
in New York Hospital, January 1993
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Discharged from New York Hospital, January 18, 1993
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

With Camera at the covered Centre Court at Wimbledon, June 1989
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

At work, October 1992
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

MY DAVIS CUP
campaigns, my protests against apartheid in South Africa, and my skirmishes over academic requirements for athletes were doubtless the most highly publicized episodes of my life in the 1980s after my retirement. However, most of my time was spent much more quietly. This was the notorious “real world” that sometimes had seemed so far away while, as a professional athlete, I flew around the world in pursuit of my tennis career. This real world proved, though in a different way, as challenging as those more publicized episodes. As I ventured into the other areas I had judged crucial to me as I faced retirement—public speaking, teaching, writing, business, and voluntary public service—I quickly discovered that the mundane exerted its own peculiar pressures. Success here, too, had its price; success called for diligence, attentiveness, and not a little humility. I believe that I had some success, but I also had my share of failures as I got on with the patient, unspectacular striving and achieving that, in the end, might bring me as great a sense of satisfaction as any victory on the tennis court ever did.