A message from California

Blogging offers a mixture of guilt and delight.

Guilt, because you feel the self-imposed duty to write on the blog regularly, and life being what it is many days can go by without any entries made. “A great relief!” I hear some of you cry. But from feedback received – and this is the “delight” bit – I know that others find some entries to be of interest – sources of disagreement, entertainment even – and it is always a pleasure to hear from people with an interest in the topics featured on this blog.

Both a risk and pleasure of the internet is that whatever you write can be read anywhere in the world – this blog has readers and followers in the UK, Ireland, Europe, North America and Africa. Some of these readers are fellow stroke survivors and it was wonderful to have an email recently from a book publicist in California who was writing on behalf of one of them to promote her book Before, Afdre and After  . Strange title? Read on….

Maureen Twomey was 33 in 2000 when she had a massive stroke. A young, energetic copywriter for an advertising agency with a great sense of humour, she had a promising career in front of her and was living life in San Francisco to the full. She particularly enjoyed improvised drama. The stroke she suffered in June 2000 left her unable to read, write or speak, along with many of the other delightful consequences of a major stroke.

Do you begin to see the implication of that title now?

I don’t intend this blog to be a spoiler, but it is worth quoting one of her fellow writers, Luke Sullivan:

The nurse’s note read: ‘Standing by chair. Standing by sink.’ To most of us, these are not accomplishments. To a person recovering from a stroke, they are miracles. For one author, so was writing the sentence, ‘I sit.’ Or learning to speak again. But fortunately for us, Maureen learned to write again. She brought back this moving book.

One of the lessons I learned post-stroke, is that I was “very lucky”, as one of the nurses in Oslo repeatedly told me. Oh yes, there are huge frustrations, aching gaps and significant losses, to say nothing of the stresses on others around me. But it could have been much, much worse – a couple of days ago my pedometer (see earlier post) recorded 7980 paces after a long walk on the Deeside Way. There was a time when just one of those paces would have been completely beyond me.

Maureen’s story is a great example of the triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insuperable odds.Why not read her book for yourself? You will be moved and entertained.

The link on the image and title above will take you to her Amazon page where the book is available as a paperback or a download.