God's hand in my recovery

I believe in the cliché, “Giving credit where credit is due,” and, sure, I believe God had a hand in my recovery, but I also believe “God helps those who help themselves.”

At a signing in May, a woman heard me read from My Lost Summer:

Thanks to therapy and training from my mom, today, more than twenty years after the accident, no one besides me can tell I ever had a serious brain injury.

She voiced her disapproval that I did not credit God in my recovery. Why or how did this lady even think I believed in God? I do, but ours is a free country, I can follow any belief I want.

I consciously limited the mention of God in My Lost Summer because that’s not what the book’s about; the book’s not about my family’s faith or non-faith in God—or any higher being. The book’s about my recovery, and I wrote it for the purpose of enlightening caregivers or readers in general about the experiences of the newly conscious coma survivor.

I credit mostly my mom with my full recovery. Since I’ve written this book, lots of people say, “Wow, you must have had some wonderful doctors,” and I suppose I did have, but they were “behind the scenes” players. My mom is who worked with me every day, who changed the bulletin board in my room in ICU, even though I was comatose, in order that I might be stimulated. Once I gained consciousness, she is who challenged me with simple puzzles and games, once I was released from the hospital, she is who defied doctors’ advice and sent me on to 8th grade.

The perfect cliché to end with is “God helps those who help themselves” –or those who help their daughters.