Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.

Charlotte Brontë

Most people learn of the Monell Center when they (or a loved one) have suffered a sensory loss. The Monell Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the world’s only independent, non-profit scientific institute dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on the senses of taste and smell.

I became personally connected to Monell in quite a different way, through the loss of a friend. This week would have been his birthday, so I am taking time to remember him in a number of ways, and this is one. Here is a little part of our story.

I had good friend named Don. I called him my brother, actually, we had a deep bond and psychic connection, and joked about being twins separated at birth. Don had exceptional taste in everything — he dressed impeccably, he spoke and wrote with great panache, and he could always recommend “the best” of anything (irrespective of price, he really had an eye for quality). He and I shared a love for perfume, particularly old vintage classics. When I met Don, he was looking for someone to teach him about vintage perfumes. He had a natural talent, not just for smelling and evaluating, but also for finding and acquiring the rarest perfume gems.

We were instant friends and spent several years in a whirlwind of intense perfume study and collecting. We had a list of all the famous and rare “unicorn” perfumes to chase, and we found and shared them all. We had many other things in common and also discussed everything else about life — the past, the present, the future, our dreams and fears, all in exquisite detail. But we always seemed to circle back to the smell of things, our memory of smells, describing the smell of something, how something in a fantasy would smell….

Whenever I had an interesting experience, I couldn’t wait to tell Don what it smelled like. When we shared the news about some of the most momentous occasions of our lives, like the birth of his daughter, one of the first things we talked about was what perfume we were wearing. Don helped me choose the perfume for my doctoral graduation and hooding, and for my wedding day. Not a single day went by, for several years, when we didn’t discuss what perfumes we each were wearing (usually more than once a day).

When Don died suddenly in early December, 2019, I was devastated. He lived 300 miles away, and had a wife and small children, so he wasn’t someone who was physically present in my daily life. But because of our close and constant communication, and the way that we shared scents, he was always “there.” We often coordinated wearing the same perfume at the same time. I knew (and also used) all of his favorite scents. Suddenly the thing that we had loved most was a constant reminder of his absence.

Over the next few weeks, I must have picked up my phone a thousand times to text Don. I cried constantly, until my face was red and raw. I couldn’t bring myself to wear perfume, every one of the hundreds of scents I owned seemed connected to him, every smell seemed like a ghost.

Then one night, a friend sent me a message thanking me for a small sample I’d sent him from a vintage bottle of Schiparelli Shocking. He’d just applied it and had an unusually strong emotional reaction to it, and wanted to thank me for the opportunity to try something so special, and not easy to acquire. Suddenly I felt compelled — I wanted to share that experience, and I got up out of my sad bed where I had been reading poetry and weeping, and I put on Shocking too, and we had a good talk about it. For a few minutes, I was uplifted.

On that night, it profoundly sunk in that the real joy in collecting perfume is not possession, it is the shared experience with others. I thought about all of the times that Don had sent samples of rare and expensive perfumes to different people all over the world, just so that we could have more voices to add to the discussion. He was very well known for his generosity. I send samples of perfume to people too, but I wanted to find a more far-reaching way to honor his generous spirit. A way of expressing gratitude for the gift of our friendship, something beyond just sharing perfume.

Don and I loved to read the writing of Luca Turin, and I remembered how we’d discussed his piece about anosmia in NZZ Folio on numerous occasions. Losing our sense of smell was one of our greatest fears. It was the experience of smelling things that bound us together. If either of us had been afflicted with anosmia, we would never have met and had this wonderful, life-changing friendship. So many of the things that had always brought us joy would not have existed for us. And so, it became very clear that the best way to honor Don’s memory was to support research that might someday help others to experience or reclaim this sort of joy as well.

I have more than enough perfume to last for many lifetimes, so it was not a difficult decision for me to shift some of my budget from buying perfume to charitable donation. On the one-month anniversary of Don’s death, I set up a recurring monthly donation in memoriam to the Monell Center. Since arranging my monthly donation in January, I’ve heard from representatives at Monell numerous times in both general donor publications and personal communications, and when I get personal notes they always recall my story of Don’s life and his passing, and why I felt compelled to give. It feels good to know that the donations are supporting good work, and that someone else is remembering my friend.

The Monell Chemical Senses Center

In the 1960’s a veterinary professor from Cornell named Dr. Kare became interested in the functions of taste and smell as he studied food choices in various species. He founded the Monell Center, a multi-disciplinary institute for the study of these senses, which opened in 1968.

Monell now has approximately 40 PhD-level scientists in varied fields such as psychology, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and genetics, who collaborate toward the common goal of understanding the chemical senses of smell and taste. Monell’s scientific research has addressed issues such as human flavor and fragrance perception, nutrition and diet, obesity and metabolic disease, population regulation, homeland security, environmental chemical exposure, and pollution effects. Monell has also trained more than 400 scientists in their pre- and post-doctoral training programs.

The Monell Anosmia Project is a targeted research mission within the center. Its goal is to better understand the underlying causes of anosmia and develop effective treatments, while also increasing awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anosmia.

How Can We Help?

There are lots of stories about anosmia in the fragrance community. Some are anecdotes (going “noseblind” from wearing too much of your favorite perfume), some are science-based (certain ionones in perfumes can induce a sort of temporary anosmia), and some are just misconception. Some are true stories like Jean Carles becoming completely anosmic before creating Ma Griffe and Miss Dior, using only his memory of scent to guide him, or Jo Malone, who lost her sense of smell during treatment for breast cancer and sold her perfume business (happily she did regain her sense of smell later).

Now, during the age of COVID-19, the stories are becoming more personal. We are hearing from friends and people online about the period of time when they couldn’t smell their perfumes, and how it affected them. I have much more fear of my dear friend who is a perfumer getting the virus than I do of getting it myself, because of this. Thankfully it seems that most people are regaining their sense of smell, but it is making anosmia more real, more personal to each of us. So it is a great time to talk about awareness and funding research.

To learn more about anosmia, there are great resources on the Monell Center website’s Anosmia Research page. There are FAQs, videos, links to sign up for research studies, a list of Monell’s scientific publications about anosmia, an excellent bibliography, and links to make donations.

Because anosmia is an “invisible disability,” and is often met with a dismissive attitude by the general public (as well as policy-makers), private donations for research funding are critical. There are many ways that you can contribute financially to research at Monell, here are some that I’ve done this year:

• Directly, through their website, as a one-time or recurring gift (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually).
• Signing up for igive.com and choosing Monell as your charity — igive is an automatic store rebate program that donates your rebate to your chosen cause. It’s free to use and you can even download an igive button for your browser so that it opens automatically when you shop at a participating store.
• Signing up for Amazon Smile and choosing Monell as your charity — Amazon Smile allows you to support Monell every time you shop at no cost to you by donating 0.5% of your eligible purchases when you sign up and shop through smile.amazon.com. AmazonSmile has the same selection of products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com, including Amazon Prime member benefits.
• Creating a Birthday Fundraiser on Facebook and choosing Monell as your Nonprofit Organization. You can raise awareness about anosmia and raise money for Monell by “donating” your birthday to Monell and asking your friends and family to make donations in lieu of gifts.

Finally, educate yourself and talk about anosmia in the fragrance community, in your blogs, videos, and social media pages. Not about “overspraying,” but about the real, life-altering disorder of olfaction that affects millions of people. Encourage others to learn more, and to support research. If someone tells you that they or someone they care about is experiencing anosmia, encourage them to seek expert diagnosis, treatment, and support.