Customer Reviews

The Bear's Embrace: A True Story of Survival

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First, the book. It is sometimes hard going to read about such a horrific experience as a grizzly bear attack and its excruciating aftermath, but believe me, it is worth it. This is a book that will exhaust your emotions, it will make you FEEL and marvel at how much one human being can endure. It will do that, unless you are a relatively shallow human being, uninterested in the human condition and emotions, as some of the reviewers of this book are. So "The Bear's Embrace" has "very little action", is "boring" and describes "pointless suffering"? Oh, please God help me! A story about a grizzly bear attack and the frantic attempts to save the victims has "very little action"? A woman's attempt to cope with the disfigurement of her face and the ensuing torture of constant pain and infection is "boring"? Her severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, her forever-changed relationship with her husband, their Down's syndrome baby, the loss of an eye, the incredible pain from her injuries and infection that just seemed to go on and on is "POINTLESS SUFFERING"? Well, let me tell you something. NO suffering is "pointless". You poor readers, having to read such a "boring" book; no murders or sex or car explosions, WAAAHHH! This is an incredible book about an incredible quirk of fate that changes a woman's life forever; it is a tale of endurance and survival that will move you deeply. You wonder "how could anybody STAND this"? Ms. Tighem did...for a long time. But it got to a point where she simply could stand no more. She committed suicide on Dec. 17, 2005. She was 47. I hope that she is now at peace, without any pain at last. She was a courageous, remarkable woman...rest in peace, dear lady.

Patricia Van Tighem was an ordinary person living a contented life, when a pleasant hike became a years-long struggle for health, for her relationships, and for her sanity.

There are other books about bear attacks, but this one examines the long-term aftermath of serious injury, in a way that can apply to anyone who has lost their health, their good looks and/or their equilibrium in a bad car wreck, an assault, or other sudden trauma.

The damage done to her body happened in seconds. The struggle to save her life took hours. Her road after that toward physical, emotional and mental healing has taken almost two decades, is still continuing, and is what makes this book so compelling. She offers no easy answers or triumphant happy ending, and she seems all the more real for it.

Ms. Van Tighem's experience teaches that healing comes through going ahead and living life, even while struggling. During extreme physical and mental trials, living with chronic pain and battling depression, she has raised a family, organized support groups for those with disfiguring injuries, and lobbied for improvements in the Canadian mental health care system.

Her husband, who was also injured badly in the attack, has maintained their marriage, supported her throughout her struggles, and is as much a part of this record of recovery as she is.

As for bears, this one was real, and its shadow looms large over the book and over all of us who love the high places where bears live. But one need not know bear country or bears to appreciate this woman's journey.

There is a legend that a person who is injured by a bear receives the bear's strength; Patricia Van Tighem, despite her protestations to the contrary, is as fiercely strong as a grizzly.

"The Bear's Embrace" is written by a woman who was hiking with her husband when they were attacked by a bear. Though both seriously wounded, they made it out alive and began the long road back to recovery. Both have facial scarring, but hers are much more severe, causing years of pain and permanent disfigurement.

Ironically, the problem one reviewer had with: "hoping for some kind of information about how people actually cope with such devastating horror in their lives, but there was nothing here, just page after page of seemingly pointless suffering without redemption or relief" is exactly how living with PTSD is like. It's extremely difficult to cope with, which is why it can break up families/friendships. As someone who has PTSD, I was able to empathize with almost everything with the author was talking about.

The writing can be emotionally raw and the constant emotional turmoil Ms.Van Tighem goes through is captured well. Though she's able to pull herself up for small periods, at one point starting a support group for those having facial disfigurements, most of the book is about her trying to cope with her disfigurement and depression. Only at the end is she able to start climbing out of the pit she is in, when she was finally diagnosed with PTSD after 20 years.

If you'd like to get a glimpse of how badly PTSD can affect someone, read this book. It does an excellent job of showing the difficulties a PTSD victim has in reintegrating themselves back into everyday life as well as the daily struggles just to live one day at a time.

I picked up this book for resale, and I leafed through it. I was caught at page 16 and sat down to read it all. I did. The attack, the recovery, the emotions, and finally the resolve. This woman has been through hell and lived to tell the tale. The life we all have, or will, experience: Marriage, love, accident, loss of a loved parent/child. A less than perfect life. I hope you will never know the sorrow this woman has been through, but I hope her story will enlighten you to be strong, and deal with your demons before they bring you down. And, by the way, she is an excellent writer.

PTSD is a wickedly subtle thing that can creep into your life without you having the slightest clue what it is or what the far reaching effects may be. It can be the result of a pointed trauma or something smaller, such as an adverse emotional experience. Ms. Van Tighem seems to have no interest in exploiting her drama for the sake of attention, but perhaps seeks validation for her experience exactly how it happened- a few hours of horrifying excitement during and immediately after the attack, and more pointedly, the reality of the long term effects of this life altering incident to herself and her family over the following seventeen years. It is something that is often missing in the bear attack story compilations on bookshelves today. Kudos to this author for finding the bravery and the shameless audacity to actually write a true story, as is.

I just read this book for the second time and couldn't put it down.....either time. It's more than extraordinary. The editorials sum up the story but it is the author's personality, honesty and warmth, palpable throughout, that truly give it such life. Thank you, Patricia, for sharing this remarkable journey with us. Your light truly does shine.

This is a very good book about a fascinating, though often devastating, subject. Just wanted to mention: A reviewer wrote that there are not many good books about bear attacks. Not true! I want to recommend "Night of the Grizzlies," by Jack Olsen. It is an incredibly riveting account. There is nothing like it. You will not be able to put it down. Or forget it.

Patricia "Trish" van Tighem - a vicacious, pretty young nurse and her pediatric resident husband of three years are out hiking when they are mauled by a grizzly bear. This is the story of the ensuing 15 years including the many surgeries Patricia went through and her depression that ensued as a result of the pain she has had to endure along with the disfiguration caused by the attack.

Trish and Trevor had everything going for them when they, two experienced backpackers, took a well-deserved weekend off to do something they enjoyed. They took all the necessary precautions but the couldn't escape a particularly aggressive female grizzly one fall day in Waterton Lakes National Park south of their home in Calgary, Alberta. Trevor was attacked first and Trish was torn between helping him or climbing a tree to save herself-she had always been told grizzlies couldn't climb trees. But due to their experience, the cold weather, and two hikers who find them soon after the attack, they both survive. This book is less about the attack itself than the years afterwards including quite a bit about their initial time in the hospital, Trish's many surgeries, and their life in rural Canada with (eventually) four children.

This book was a bittersweet read for me as I read it after hearing of Trish's death by suicide in December of 2005 at the age of 47. So I knew that although the book ended on an upbeat note, that the real story hadn't ended and it didn't end happily. I also knew that at the time of her death Trish and Trevor were separated. That may have colored my opinion of Trevor from the very beginning, but I did find him a bit selfish throughout the entire book and even though he seemed to try to accept Trish after her injuries, I don't think he ever truly could deal with her disfigurement. All in all though the book was a mesmerizing read. Trish was a talented writer and this is a stunning story. I highly recommend it.

The author was mauled by a bear in the wilderness and was disfigured, losing one eye and experiencing isolation and trauma which were to change her life. The Bear's Embrace tells of her experiences, her recovery, and her struggles with surviving a bear attack. Riveting.

With heartrending honesty, Patricia Van Tighem invites the reader into her nightmare of physical and emotional disabilities and the struggle to put her life back together after the brutal attack she experienced. Having experienced PTSD after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989, I could relate to her stress and confusion. Factor in her unending pain, the loss of her appearance, people's stares, and the callous, judgmental treatment she received at a hospital, and you have a woman who had overwhelming issues to deal with.

I have nothing but praise for Patricia's willingness to candidly share her struggle with others. I hope she continues to write.