Beauty for Ashes

A short memoir packed with firsthand experience about a topic rarely discussed from the survivor's perspective, Beauty for Ashes: Memoir of a Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor shares my horrors and triumphs after sustaining a traumatic brain injury from a motor vehicle accident during the most promising part of my life. While not entirely in chronological order, due to memory impairment, I decided to categorize the major areas affected in my life by this tragedy. My goal is to support other trauma survivors, and those close to them, by discussing the ugly truths one can face with an injury that cannot be seen, yet is often misunderstood and underestimated.

As a reflection of my personality, this piece has humor and sincerity toward the many roads that lead me to where I currently am in my recovery, from loss of cognitive skills, friendships, and my independence, to the climax of an expected engagement to my boyfriend that didn't happen. As the negative medical reports, discouragement, and isolation drained the color from my life's portrait, my fight to believe the God I grew to know as a compassionate one became the foundation for my triumph and recovery.

Observing the lack of education and awareness within my native Caribbean community, I tear open the curtains of issues shunned and hidden at large - depression and anxiety - hurdles I silently struggled with as a result of shame. This leads the reader to prompt discussions, and hopefully develop compassion and understanding for those who feel the same as I did. I express the reality of life's frailty, the pressures that test and shake relationships across the board - how strong are the ones we believe to be the strongest?

Beauty for Ashes: Memoir of a Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor is a gripping story about conquering the odds and finding solace after the storm.