Lyrysa Smith

A Normal Life: a Sister's Odyssey Through Brain Injury Lyrysa Smith

Molly has degrees from Yale and Stanford and was a publishing executive and an extraordinary athlete. But after a horrible accident, she didn?t know the difference between a hairbrush and a hammer. Molly got a severe brain injury from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her husband died as he lay next to her in the hotel bed. Molly had a baseline pulse, but was declared clinically dead. After nine days in a coma, Molly emerged. But not the Molly her family knew. That Molly was gone. This is not a story about recovery. Molly got better, then worse, and then simply different. She is still the oldest of four sisters, but she is a new Molly. This astonishing memoir from the second oldest sister chronicles Molly?s brain injury and its impact on the sisters? close relationship and on the entire family. Told with engaging candor, this account delves into the harrowing complexities of this most damaging and mysterious of impairments, and reveals how a close-knit family was turned inside out and was forever changed by an ?invisible injury.? Revealed in startling twists and turns, this gritty, yet shining story of a life departed and also restarted is laced with frustration and lingering loss, but also long on humor and joy. Full of spirit and insights, Molly and her family struggle with brain injury using courage and creativity, determination and hope, while always vulnerable to its unrelenting dilemmas.