a love of language
Story By Mike Overall, Photo submitted

Retired public school teacher Bettye Gibson of Jonesboro said her two daughters are “as different as daylight and dark,” but Amy and Jennifer share one talent that their English-teaching mother inculcated in them long before they reached adulthood: a deep and abiding respect for the English language.

Both women have parlayed their communicative skills into two books, testaments to their professionalism and their desire to share knowledge with lay readers, as well as professionals.

It’s no surprise that the Gibson girls possess a writerly bent, thanks in part to a respect for the language skills they honed as young women, when they learned to communicate through the miracle of the written and spoken word.

Daughter Dr. Jennifer Schnellmann of Charleston, S.C., currently is director of the office of scientific editing and publications and assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She has written “Understanding and Conquering Fibromyalgia.” Of her own volition, she has taken the time and effort to appear before support organizations and groups of older citizens who share her condition.

“I wrote this book because I had amassed a great deal of information about my own condition by reading the primary scientific literature, and I was treating my condition very successfully. My husband was impressed with my personal solutions and suggested that I put the data into a book for others. She also has written public science information for the Society of Toxicology, “so I am very keen on distilling scientific and medical information for the masses.”

“Some health care providers tell those who suffer from the condition that the pain is ‘all in their head, or you are just depressed,’” Jennifer said. “These particular people feel considerably aggrieved that apparently easily accessible information is not known by their physician, or that their doctor is just not interested in the situation. Because their doctor is their conduit (or their barrier) to pain medicine and other types of relief, this is very frustrating for them. If no one believes them, they cannot get the help they need. Questions such as these prompt me to explain the distinction between a scientist and a physician and the differences in training which lend themselves to differences in thinking and acquiring new information.”

Jennifer also explained in the book why, as a scientist, she has access to such information, but cannot write a prescription or treat those who suffer from the condition. “They usually leave me with more hope but some simmering frustration,” she wrote. “Still, I think their residual agitation fuels them to read more, do more, ask more questions, and not depend on someone else to improve their lives for them.”

Advice regarding how to support loved ones with the condition and a unique discussion of fibromyalgia in children are also presented in the book. And as a bonus, the writer shares her struggles with fibromyalgia, including humorous stories and novel approaches for managing the disorder.

“Non-professionals have a similar and peculiar reaction to this book. First, people are skeptical that I would really know what they experience, because they tell me that so far, no physician has understood and helped them. Then you can almost see the mental ignition. They smile when they ‘get it,’ and they see that I really do know their pain and have lived it.”

And, oh, there’s Amy, the other half of Jennifer’s sisterly heartbeat. Back in 2006, she sat with pen in hand, threw the genre of textbook doublespeak to the linguistic winds, and wrote a down-to-earth guide for the community college student. The distant education coordinator at Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock at the time, she wrote what community college students may expect when they matriculate into her realm of education. The book has already been through several printings.

Jennifer has done the same, in language that is forthright and devoid of technical jargon. Her book is one woman’s paean to what ails many in our society. Her book is a plain English testament to a debilitating condition, albeit a publication that retains its medical and scientific integrity at the same time.

Jennifer and her husband, Rick, a renal toxicologist, and their 10-year-old daughter, Mary Rose, live in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, near Charleston.

A 1988 graduate of Jonesboro High, Jennifer received her bachelor’s in biology from Lyon College in 1992 and her doctorate in pharmacology/toxicology from UAMS in 1997.