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Original trade paperback 124 pp ISBN 9781597190558
$15.95 | Adobe PDF, EPUB & Mobipocket Ebook ISBN 9781597190565 $3.99
| About the Author | Author's website A collection of poems chronicling the author's recovery from a brain damaging car accident,
with a list of journaling therapy writing prompts and other resources she found helpful in transcending
trauma. Purchase from these retailers: "A Life Interrupted is a complelling memoir in poetry that tells the story of Louise Mathewson's recovery from and life with a traumatic brain injury. She captures the feelings that arise along the process of waking from a coma, relearning critical life skills, and coping with long-term effects of the injury. Her poetry gives the reader a deep sense of these struggles. This book would be a help to not only survivors but to families and health professionals due to its perspective of being inside an injured brain." Lee Woodruff
"Reader: You will be TRANSFORMED BY INJURY—vicariously and literally as you read this book of poems. "There is a message in this poetry that is poignant and essential for all who are recovering from traumatic brain injury and for those who love them. This poetry will transform you: Mind, Body and Spirit. You will feel your skin prickle; your heart and lungs open and your mind relax in a way that prose would never penetrate. You will become aware of the greater importance of your Life experience, transformed by injury. You will know the stages and transitions that occur on the healing journey with Traumatic Brain Injury. You will experience a wakeup call mentally and spiritually to declare the purpose of your life. As you read A Life Interrupted, you will be interrupted to become more authentic and whole, while wholly different than before. "This book should be required for every neurologist graduating from residency. It should be in every VA hospital for soldiers returning from war. It should be at the bedside of all who suffer at home. A caretaker should gently read these words out loud to heal and be healed. "The book not only outlines the TBI journey but specifies resources for
healing. The best of the best therapy and therapists in this country are listed at the end of the book. These
approaches hold hope for all who have chosen this challenging and difficult life in transition. To those who work
with TBI and those such as Louise Mathewson who live beyond it, we owe our gratitude and awe." “Life can change in a moment. This collection of poems by Louise Mathewson
provides record of a shattering car accident and the aftermath of a brain injury. Ms. Mathewson awakens from
a coma to find her self and her life irrevocably changed. At first, she is unable to walk or make herself
understood. Her brain could no longer abstract or remember. Although the setbacks are many, she is able to
begin again. The collection will provide hope to patients ‘transformed by injury’ and their families. Writing
itself proves to be a transformative act. The poems reveal her strong spirit, resilience and the step by step
journey of recovery.”
“Shattering, haunting, humbling and ultimately triumphant, this poetic memoir
takes us deep into a damaged brain and the courageous crawl back to a reclaimed life. Language, once lost,
returns to shimmer on the page, each poem an altar to the angel’s promise that in trauma there is
transformation. This collection will surely provide hope, identification, and voice for those who struggle
with TBI, and those who love and serve them. It is a brilliant and urgently needed addition to the literature
in therapeutic writing.”
“A Life Interrupted is a must read for anyone who has experienced loss,
illness, crisis, or traumas—physical or emotional. This heart rendering account of one person’s
journey from chaos to serenity leads to the discovery that ‘Traumas are about transformation.’ Mathewson
takes you from the path
“A must-read for anyone in the traumatic brain injury (TBI) field. This poetry is packed
with inspiring words painting a patient’s viewpoint of the long journey from horrific accident to revitalized
person. Louise is constantly viewing her injury as the glass half full, finding new possibilities in day to day
happenings while re-developing brain pathways. In her words, 'TBI = transformed by injury.'” “In few words, in poetic metaphor, readers are thrown into the realities of brain injury
and recovery in ways that will stay with us for a long time. Louise Mathewson’s writing is a map to a
journey we may not all take, but we all need to understand! I am grateful for the comprehendible guidance of
Louise’s writing—it increases my understanding and allows me to be a better companion to people with
traumatic brain injury however and wherever our paths cross.” “After a severe traumatic brain injury a life is changed; the recovery will be challenging,
but the soul need not be lost. Louise Mathewson has created an amazing collection of insights into
brain injury recovery as a transformation, one that can be experienced in terms of a positive journey. In her
words, she has truly ‘Learned to dance with an injured brain.’” “A Life Interrupted by Louise Mathewson is a collection of uplifting poetry
written in the first person but easily transferable to the reader. The metaphors and multiple modalities of
rich imagery gently move the reader forward from one page to the next. The intimacy she is able to
share with the reader and deeply optimistic sense of faith is inspiring for any and all who have experienced
loss....Her personal story is one that should be shared with anyone with a brain injury.”
“A car accident left Louise Mathewson with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that changed her forever. She awoke after a two-week coma unable to walk, read, speak, remember. But something deep inside had not been touched—her essence, her soul, remained intact. It struggled through the confusion and chaos to reclaim its voice as she struggled to regain her physical and mental abilities. This book of short poems recounts Louise’s strenuous journey back from the darkness of this ‘invisible injury’ and allows us to rejoice with her when, finally, she is able to change her personal understanding of TBI to ‘transformed by brain injury.’” Barbara Stahura “Brain injured individuals are launched into a journey through unfamiliar and chaotic terrain, a path with few signposts and one mostly traveled alone.
Many enter that wilderness and do not return. Louise Mathewson has traveled that path. Yet, remarkably, she
has refused to surrender to its isolation. Through her poetry she insists that we join her there as she
wrestles with the angel of transformation, as she emerges from the cocoon of her grief to become the
shimmering poetic butterfly so evidently here now. What emerges through her writing is an evocation of the
experience of brain injury that is by turns wrenching, detailed, clinically accurate, ruthlessly honest, and
in the end spiritually rich and nourishing. Darell M. Shaffer, M.D.
"Louise eloquently relates the experience of a brain injury into such poetic prose. Through her analogies, she conveys what it must feel like to live with a brain injury. Her words soothe me." Mary Dineen, M.S., CCC/SLP
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A Life Interrupted
© 2015 Pearlsong Press
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