Inspiration for "Five Years to Live"

Inspiration for Five Years to Live

 

This book is very personal to me and my family. My youngest brother Steve was paralyzed in car accident when he was 24 years old. This is an experience I hope and pray no other family endures. Shortly after the accident, my mother gave Steve a cassette recorder and told him to record his thoughts and emotions. Steve’s goal was to write a book from the patient’s perspective. He did record several hours of thoughts, but could never bring himself to write the book. He said reliving those terrible days would be too painful.

After I wrote my third book, Inside the Spaghetti Bowl, Steve said “Let’s give this a try. If it can help one person deal with this tragedy it will be worthwhile.” My parents, brothers and sisters all had our memories and experiences to draw upon, but to make this book as realistic as possible, Steve would have to revisit some very dark times.  He listened to his tapes and the horror he thought he had left behind engulfed him. He went back to the moment his car flipped on the New Jersey turnpike. His emotions poured out as he recalled those critical moments where he teetered on the breaking point.  Very few people have the courage to live through this experience and then go back and relive it in order to help others.

Steve said had it not been for the love and support of his family, he would not have survived. As difficult as it is for the injured person, the family is also changed forever. A mother whose son suffered a serious spinal cord injury told me: “This story needs to be told. This tragedy can happen to everyone without warning. It needs to expresses what a spinal cord injury does to the life of not only the person involved, but to their entire family as well. For those strong enough to face this overwhelming obstacle, it is a journey of love, endurance, and absolute triumph of the spirit. It will bring so much hope to so many people that find themselves in a nightmare from which they cannot awake. You will speak for all of us.”

After my going through this ordeal with my brother and my family and hearing the heart wrenching story from this mother, I had to write Five Years to Live.