ONE SIDED
Observations On living with the aftermath of stroke and other unrelated topics
by
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THIS LITTLE BOAT OF MINE Join me in rowing this metaphorical half boat. so cleverly devised to tip eternally toward its missing side. Its remaining oar can barely touch the water before its virtual centerline rolls comfortably over drenching me daily in disability I have tried to dive astern and grasp the rear gunwale, kicking furiously, sloppily and as effectively as I row My provisions have long since sunk to the bottom, where all non-buoyant things go, though I have so far survived. My progress is impossible to measure for no wake will form behind this craft but for the waste I leave behind I am a torpedo as slow as a curling star across the night sky. I am a race car, absent only its engine, a runner absent only his legs. It is a race lost, an opportunity missed, a flower seed failed to sprout. Driftwood salvaged from the foaming, stinky sea now forms my bed. The sea is my lady with whom I lay. I hear her smacking liquid kisses on the hull. Her contrived groans I know to be the shifting cargo I have collected from the flotsam meandering by sometimes at night, sometimes in daylight, but just within reach: the leftovers of some violent act struck from above-the Earth's own stroke carelessly leaving lame- legged trees and rocks to practice falling, sometimes surviving.
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About the Book
This book is a first- hand account of the experience of surviving a stroke and adapting to life with new limitations. It is the story from the architect-author's perspective from home to emergency room to hospital bed to transitional care and finally back home again. It is a story of hope and bewilderment from a survivor who had no reason to believe he was at risk but who found himself without the use of his dominant left side, without a job, but with a desire to help others understand the traumatic implications of this medical event and the opportunities it presents to understand our fragile nature and giving spirit.
About the Author
Patrick F. Quinn is 100%Irish, a retired architect and member of the American Institute of Architects with a degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota and an advanced graduate certificate in educational facility planning from San Diego State University. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where he tends garden, washes his car and moves snow around his driveway.