You spot Dolly’s health problems long before she does. It starts with the morning ritual that isn’t a ritual at all. She wakes up by slapping her phone so hard it flies across the room, then groans like a bullfrog with a hangover.
She’ll tell you her “breakfast” was a handful of almonds and a sip of flat Coke. That’s not fuel; that’s audacity masquerading as nutrition. Her body is running on a prayer and the memory of a vegetable it saw once in 2019.
Then there’s the sleep, or what passes for it. Dolly doesn’t sleep; she collapses. She falls into bed at 2 a.m. after doom-scrolling through videos of people organizing fridges, only to wake up at 5 a.m. feeling like she’s been hit by a truck made of carpet fuzz.
The Vitamin D-Deficit Dance
Dolly’s relationship with the sun is complicated. She avoids it like it’s a telemarketer, preferring the gentle glow of her laptop screen. Her skin has the pallor of a mushroom that’s been left in a dark basement for a decade.
When you tell her to go outside, she looks at you like you’ve suggested she swim the English Channel. “But bugs,” she whispers, clutching a blanket. Meanwhile, her bones are filing a formal complaint with management about the lack of calcium.
It’s not just the sun. Dolly’s hydration strategy is a masterclass in denial. She believes coffee counts as water. She thinks a Diet Coke at noon is basically a green smoothie. Her kidneys are sending out SOS signals, but she’s too busy ignoring her own bladder.
What's Wrong With Dolly Parton? Why She Is Sick Revealed - Men's Journal