Share Your Lemonade

At the end of the epilog of My_Lost_Summer I give my Website and invite people to send me their thoughts on the book. This morning waiting in my inbox was an e-mail from a woman who bought the book yesterday at a signing I had locally:

Hi Libby,

I bought a copy of your book today at the Kroger store in Finneytown. I just wanted to let you know that I read the entire book this afternoon. I could not put it down. I want you to know that I have not read an entire book in one day for over 30 years, since before I had my children. Your story touched my heart and I will encourage others to read it. Thank you for sharing your story and I wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Lyn B.

How nice that she took the time to send me these kind words. Of the people I’ve talked to who have read_My_Lost_Summer, about half tell me that they do so in one day. (The book is 189 pages so reading it in one sitting would be a feat unless you have a tiny stomach [so don’t get hungry] and a large bladder.)

Another woman I talked to told me that her four-year-old granddaughter was in a coma for several days before life support was removed. I couldn’t believe this woman wasn’t tearing up as she recounted the events that lead to her granddaughter’s death, but she told me she has found peace in knowing that the pain of at least three other children was alleviated because her son chose to donate the little girl’s organs.

Amazing. Truly amazing that someone could be so strong and mentally healthy. But finding peace is so much better than the alternative: holding on to hate or wondering why.

I shared with this lady my feelings about my coma. I always wondered why God allowed it to happen, why my family and I weren’t spared the struggles, frustrations and pain of the many years of recovery. Yet when I started writing _My_Lost_Summer I, myself, found peace—or at least I started to accept that my accident happened for the greater good of others—because I wrote this book to tell family and caregivers what actually goes on in the minds of the newly conscious coma survivor. And with that information, doctors, therapists, and family can change their treatment of the patient for the better.

Through the years at different milestones in my life I’ve asked
1. Why did the coma happen?
2. Why have I been unhappy with the technical jobs I’ve held, which all pertained to my B.S. in environmental engineering? Why should I have had to struggle through earning that degree if ultimately I am unsatisfied with the work I do?
3. Why, after going back to school and earning my M.A. in Professional Writing & Editing (since I was unhappy with my B.S.), am I unemployed after more than a year of searching for work?

The one answer to all that is so that I would be prepared to write a book about my recovery that would motivate caregivers to alter their methods of care and coaching to better help six million yearly survivors of traumatic brain injury (U.S. statistic).

I encourage you to find peace within yourself by searching for answers to your life questions that will benefit the world or your community.

• Why was your score too low on the police entrance exam? Maybe you’d do the community better in another line of work?
  
• Why did you go through the pain of divorce? So your sons did not grow up learning that communication involved verbal and physical abuse.
  
• Why did you witness the atrocities of war? So that you become an activist towards ultimate world peace.

I don’t know who said it first, and you might think this an oversimplification, but When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And share it with the world.