True Love and Suffering: A Caretaker's Memoir of Trauma, Despair, and Other Blessings PDF Download

Author: Pavel Ythjall
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
ISBN: 9781544523958
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
After only a year of marriage, Pavel Ythjall found himself staring into the eyes of a neurosurgeon who told him point-blank: "Your wife will be paralyzed, neck down, for life." At the time, Pavel had a broken neck too. His vertebrae were supported by a halo screwed directly into his skull. A tragic accident on the way to a Christmas party had changed their lives forever. They had no family to help them. The doctor predicted Kat would find a way to kill herself, despite the paralysis. As reality sank in, everyone thought Pavel would leave her. But he was their only hope of discovering a new way to move forward-together. A beautiful, heart-wrenching story of trauma, love, grace, and the ultimate meaning of life, True Love and Suffering was born from the global movement around Pavel and Kat's incredible journey. Join thousands around the world who have discovered their own strength, resilience, and hope for true love through the inspiring lives of these two heroes.

Author: Linda K. Olson
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 1631527908
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Linda Olson and her husband, Dave Hodgens, were young doctors whose story had all the makings of a fairy tale. But then, while they were vacationing in Germany, a train hit their van, shattering their lives—and Linda’s body. When Linda saw Dave for the first time after losing her right arm and both of her legs, she told him she would understand if he left. His response: “I didn’t marry your arms or your legs. If you can do it, I can do it.” In order to protect their loved ones, they decided to hide the truth about what really happened on those train tracks, and they kept their secret for thirty-five years. As a triple amputee, Linda learned to walk with prostheses and change diapers and insert IVs with one hand. She finished her residency while pregnant and living on her own. And she and Dave went on to pursue their dream careers, raise two children, and travel the world. Inspiring and deeply moving, Gone asks readers to find not only courage but also laughter in the unexpected challenges we all face. The day of the accident, no one envied Linda and Dave. Today, many do.

Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307957330
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Author: Rachel Michelberg
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 1647420334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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“. . . an engaging exploration of duty, guilt, and self-preservation. . . . A cleareyed consideration of difficult ethical and familial choices.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, dedicated to doing what’s honorable, just as her parents raised her to do. But when her husband, David, survives a plane crash and is left with severe brain damage, she faces a choice: will she dedicate her life to caring for a man she no longer loves, or walk away? Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident, and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for two kids in addition to a now irrational, incontinent, and seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? But then again, what kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible. Crash tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts individuals face when caregiving for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member.

Author: Alan Wolfelt
Publisher: Companion Press
ISBN: 1617222887
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
Grief overload is what you feel when you experience too many significant losses all at once, in a relatively short period of time, or cumulatively. In addition to the deaths of loved ones, such losses can also include divorce, estrangement, illness, relocation, job changes, and more. Our minds and hearts have enough trouble coping with a single loss, so when the losses pile up, the grief often seems especially chaotic and defeating. The good news is that through intentional, active mourning, you can and will find your way back to hope and healing. This compassionate guide will show you how.

Author: Jay Armstrong
Publisher: Write on Fight on LLC
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"It is a unique experience to read a book that speaks directly to your heart. If you live with a rare life altering disease, you spend a lot of time in your head. It's hard to put the thoughts into words. In Bedtime Stories for the Living, Jay Armstrong accurately articulates the thoughts of any person living with a rare disease or anyone simply struggling to overcome their challenges." Kyle Bryant, spokesperson for the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance and host of the Two Disabled Dudes podcast. A regular dad. A rare brain disease. A chance to live forever. A cell phone's ring interrupts the silence as Jay Armstrong sits in his high school classroom preparing for the year ahead. Something about the ring makes his stomach drop. It's his doctor. The words, "diffuse cerebellar atrophy, a rare, degenerative brain disease" float through the speaker. All of Jay's youthful dreams of being a writer rush back, flooding the twenty years he has spent teaching students how to appreciate novels, memoirs, and poetry. The care he put into teaching them how to write with clarity, insight, and humor, and how to dance at the prom. The bedtime stories he never told his children spin in his imagination. It will all die when he dies. Bedtime Stories for the Living is an episodic memoir in which Jay shows his children how to accept their limitations and find joy. The collection of tender, witty stories about fatherhood, persevering despite illness, and pursuing your dreams, demonstrates how love gives us the strength to face heartache with bravery, humor, and grace. Reviews: "Jay Armstrong is a wonderful storyteller. I knew this the moment he joined me on my podcast. I'm thrilled to see that his storytelling translates to the page and his book is filled with stories. Jay shares stories of his challenges, his triumphs and his medical journey. I'm so glad he continues to share his stories." Jesse Jackson, Host of the Set Lusting Bruce podcast "Jay Armstrong's debut, Bedtime Stories for the Living, is part memoir, part confession, and a love letter for his children. Cataclysmic news - a hole in his brain, a rare and poorly understood condition, steady loss of motor skills and speech obstructing his desire to share in each activity with his young children - haunt each page, woven into the prism of sundry fleeting moments. Yet here, these earthy glimpses are charged with mystery, and the holiness of love. Jay's book is about the quandary of fear and suffering that face

Author: Jen Waite
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735216509
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
A woman discovers her marriage is built on an illusion in this harrowing and ultimately inspiring memoir. “Be forewarned: You won’t sleep until you finish the last page.”—Caroline Leavitt, author of Cruel Beautiful World One night. One email. Two realities... Before: Jen Waite has met the partner of her dreams. A handsome, loving man who becomes part of her family, evolving into her husband, her best friend, and the father of her infant daughter. After: A disturbing email sparks suspicion, leading to an investigation of who this man really is and what was really happening in their marriage. In alternating Before and After chapters, Waite obsessively analyzes her relationship, trying to find a single moment form the past five years that isn't part of the long con of lies and manipulation. Instead, she finds more lies, infidelity, and betrayal than she could have imagined. With the pacing and twists of a psychological thriller, A Beautiful, Terrible Thing looks at how a fairy tale can become a nightmare and what happens when “it could never happen to me” actually does.

Author: Robert Kolker
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385543778
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY • The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. "Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." —Oprah Winfrey Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

Author: bell hooks
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062862170
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces. “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better.

Author: Stan Berning
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0578006235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
This morning I am contemplating how we humans, awkwardly tangled in dreams of salvation, struggle to lend meaning to a physical world that is most often brutally indifferent. It may be that the one thing of substantial power left to us is our own imagination. Thus begins the story of a road trip up the West Coast of North America; a journey which comes to a dramatic conclusion months later in Mexico. A unique look at the nature of prayer, the power of dreams, and the risks and rewards we all face imagining ourselves into the world, 'about art' is the memoir of one artist's quest to understand the life he has lived.