After the Crash

     Last week at my local Indie bookstore (RiverRun Books) I went to see and hear Carolyn Roy-Bornstein, MD give a reading from her memoir Crash, A Mother, a Son, and the Journey from Grief to Gratitude. (Skirt! 2012) Her soft-spoken talk intrigued me enough to part with $23. I really wanted to read her story about dealing with TBI. Maybe there would be something in there that would help me now that I am dealing with TBI. I have finished the book. It is quite a bit better than the banal title implies. Dr. Bornstien writes well, probably from a lifetime of journaling, and shares the story of her son's accident and its aftermath honestly and at times, eloquently. Though the book is written by a medical doctor, it is a mother's story more than anything else. Here is a sample that appealed to me;
     "Maybe he needs to feel the cruelty of the situation full on, not softened by a mother's touch. Maybe he has to feel it like a cutter has to feel a knife against her skin. Because pain makes things real. Whatever the reason, his memory is what it is. I have finally come to realize that it has nothing to do with me. It is his reality and part of his healing and his journey back. And I have to honor it."
     I especially like her conclusion, though maybe it is inevitable, the only conclusion we can come to when tragedy touches us...
     You can learn more at Carolyn's blog; http://carolynroybornstein.com/memoir/.