Overview

Today is a pretty good day to die. Those were Marjorie Aunos's thoughts as her car hit black ice and spun out of control toward an oncoming truck. As she waited for paramedics to extricate her from the mangled wreck, unable to feel anything below her neck, she pictured her sixteen-month-old son. And decided to live. So began the most challenging chapter in the life of this overachieving psychologist and single parent, whose life's work had been to advocate for parents with intellectual disabilities to help them keep custody of their children. Marjorie's spinal cord injury thrust her into a life as a newly-disabled parent, experiencing first hand the barriers and discrimination she'd witnessed for others. She became one of those moms who wondered when child welfare officials would knock on the door with an apprehension order for her to give up her child. In a remarkably short few months, determined not to let the accident take her professional identity, Marjorie returned to work-in her wheelchair. There, the strategies that had served her well before were ineffective. In fact, they were making things worse. As a clinical psychologist, she told herself... She should have been able to prevent her own depression, anxiety, and post-trauma. She should have been able to reframe and rehabilitate herself. She should have gone into post-traumatic growth and not post-traumatic disorder. The should-haves fuelled deep shame and disappointment, which, in turn, increased her suffering. But there were even bigger challenges. Five days after the accident, she asked her parents to bring her son to the hospital. Thomas was frightened by the tubes and beeping machines. He refused to touch her, hug her, or sit beside her. Marjorie felt hurt that she couldn't be there for him and that he kept turning to his grandma for comfort. For years she'd dreamed about becoming a mother-not just any mother, but a great mother. An active mother, a role model mother. Marjorie plunged further into helplessness and powerlessness, her concept of perfect motherhood shattered on that Quebec roadway. And the child she'd worked so hard for being taken care of by others in a way that she couldn't. How can you be a good parent if you can't bend down to tie your child's shoes or scoop them into your arms for a hug or keep them safe at bath time without supervision? Does this make you a bad parent? Between physical therapy rehabilitation, new day-to-day logistics, battles with an insurance company, ongoing physical pain and pain management, Marjorie had to start over as a parent too. And she did. Giving her PTSD time to heal, Marjorie mastered co-parenting 101 with her parents, prioritizing self-care, and-something she'd never done before as an overachiever-learned how to ask for help because parenting is hard work. Marjorie finally accepted about herself what she believed about her former clients, those parents with disabilities: she may roll differently to-and with-her son but she already knew how to be a good parent.

Full Product Details

9781990688041

Table of Contents

Reviews

Marjorie's book Mom on Wheels: The Power of Purpose as a Parent With Paraplegia, is empowering and practical. Being a parent is a wonderful adventure, and no one should deprive themselves of such an experience because of their disability. -THE HONOURABLE CHANTAL PETITCLERC, PARALYMPIAN, SENATOR, AND MOTHER Marjorie Aunos's profound inner transformation is a light to anyone seeking to build their resilience and well-being-even in the most difficult of circumstances. A must read! -FATIMA DOMAN, SPEAKER, AUTHOR, COACH, CEO OF AUTHENTICSTRENGTHS.COM Marjorie tells her tragic story without bringing you down. A powerful and critical exercise in perspective-taking. As a new dad, it moved me to tears. -BRIAN MILLER, AUTHOR OF THREE NEW PEOPLE Mom on Wheels is a story about one mother's struggle for dignity and support in a world that views disability as pathology and disabled parents as somehow incapable. It's also a universal story of a mother's devotion and dedication. -MICHAEL L. WEHMEYER, PHD, CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Marjorie Aunos is both ordinary and heroic, imperfect and magnificent. She guides our understanding of resilient and generative living that aids us in becoming better people: more thoughtful, compassionate, brave, and calm. -MARIA SIROIS, PSYD, AUTHOR OF A SHORT COURSE IN HAPPINESS AFTER LOSS (AND OTHER DARK, DIFFICULT TIMES) This book is about a journey at life's crossroads filled with powerful love, outbursting self-determination, and a renewed sense of purpose. -EVELINA PITUCH, OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST, PHD CANDIDATE Riveting, vulnerable, honest, powerful, and INSPIRING! I loved the honest, vulnerable, intimate journey into Marjorie's life-changing accident. Beautifully inspiring. -RINA ROVINELLI, CO-FOUNDER SPEAKER SLAM Mom on Wheels is so much more than a beautifully written memoir of adjustment to spinal cord injury; it is an exploration of what it takes to survive and flourish with a broken body in difficult circumstances. -SHANE CLIFTON, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND ETHICS, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Marjorie Aunos has openly shared her traumatic experience and its transformative effect on the course of her life without even a trace of self-pity. Her skillful storytelling makes this book a worthwhile read. -C.A. GIBBS, AUTHOR OF THE PICTURE WALL: ONE WOMAN'S STORY OF BEING (HIS) (HER) THEIR MOTHER We need this book now! Reading it will change some part of your life for the better. You might become a better parent, a better friend, a better caregiver, a better steward of our human family. But better and stronger. -DR. RYAN M. NIEMIEC, SCIENTIST, PSYCHOLOGIST, BESTSELLING CO-AUTHOR OF THE POWER OF CHARACTER STRENGTHS Marjorie draws you in with her compelling and authentic storytelling and then strikes you mentally and physically with the rawness of her experiences. This book is a loving homage to every strength of character that we know. The passion and compassion is hypnotic. -RUTH PEARCE, BURNOUT COACH AND SPEAKER, CIO ALLE LLC An essential addition to the literature as it invites the reader to look at the world through the elephant in the room: the cultural reality of ability-based judgments, norms, and conflicts. -GREGOR WOLBRING, PHD, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY This book is a cry from the heart-a call for us all to see the everyday challenges of moms on wheels so that we can become part of the solution and allow these committed and resilient mothers to get on with their job of mothering-without obstacles. -CAROLINA BOTTARI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITE DE MONTREAL

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available