Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life
These two engaging memoirs by California freelance journalists  demonstrate how lives, family, and friends change after serious  accidents. Thrown and trampled by her horse, Dunn (Failing  Paris) survived with a badly fractured leg requiring extensive  reconstructive surgery and the threat of future infection and  amputation. As she convalesces, she candidly reviews her life  and reflects on what it means to be accident-prone. Is this  calamity not the first, but the most serious just a coincidence,  or does it indicate something deeper that needs to be examined?  Barely able to walk again, she takes up yoga, explores  complementary therapies, and embarks on a path of emotional and  physical healing. Dunn concludes that her accidents were an  unconscious message telling her that she did not care enough  about herself and her future. She returns to writing, divorces  her husband, gets back on her horse (literally), and survives a  second fall. Both active sports enthusiasts, Parker and her retired  scientist-husband, Ralph, were planning to move to Colorado when  he was knocked off his bicycle and paralyzed from the neck down.  In a series of short essays that first appeared in the San  Francisco Chronicle and other publications, Parker candidly  relates the fears and frustrations of learning to be a primary  caregiver for a quadriplegic. Friends desert her, but colorful  Momma Scott and her African American neighbors step in to lend  emotional support. Two live-in personal attendants, an ex-con,  and a Tibetan immigrant form an unconventional household  centered on caring for Ralph and for one another. With humor,  Parker spares no details describing the personal routines; the  clashes of class, culture, and caregiving; and her delights in  new friends and small pleasures. Both books are recommended for  public libraries. Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.