Being with Rachel: A Personal Story of Memory and Survival

The Call Came at 6 A.M. Karen Brennan's twenty-five-year-old daughter, Rachel, had been in a motor-cycle accident. She was in a coma. Her CAT scan, the neurosurgeon said, was very, very ugly. Instantly, Brennan's life of comfortable dailiness becomes "passionate necessary-ness." Cautioned that her daughter will not be the "same person, " Brennan waits and hopes through weeks of intensive care, months of coma, and Rachel's determined efforts to walk again. The joy of Rachel's first words is followed by the discovery that she has a severe short-term memory deficit. Rachel cannot remember or fashion a simple narrative. A professor with a special interest in memory, Brennan takes up the challenge of helping Rachel rebuild herself. Jump-starting her daughter's memory by constantly retelling Rachel's own story, Brennan also fosters the creativity and humor that have always characterized her daughter. Their collaborative effort, bound by love, is a dynamic memoir of recovery and reinvention.