In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Bob Woodruff (Author)
Key Phrases: trache tube, New York, Bob Woodruff, David Bloom (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. There's a reason Lee Woodruff's name comes first in this collaboration. While this celebrity memoir revolves around the war injuries suffered by ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff, it's really his wife's story. Drawn from the journals she kept during his recovery and also delving deeply into the history of the couple's courtship and family life, this gritty memoir is well served by Lee's capable and compelling speaking voice. Woodruff's vocal control is strong, even mesmerizing, and she peppers the grave reminiscences with funny stories and witty observations. Her voice sometimes breaks with emotion, whether describing her fears after learning of her husband's condition or earlier heartaches when coping with a miscarriage or learning of the profound hearing loss of one of their twin daughters. Bob intervenes occasionally to describe his family, various career ups and downs, and what he remembers about the incident that rendered him a casualty of war. Listeners may wish to have a tissue or two on hand while they listen to this beautiful story of marriage for better and for worse. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

In one of the most anticipated books of the year, Lee Woodruff, along with her husband, Bob Woodruff, share their never-before-told story of romance, resilience, and survival following the tragedy that transformed their lives and gripped a nation.

In January 2006, the Woodruffs seemed to have it all–a happy marriage and four beautiful children. Lee was a public relations executive and Bob had just been named co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. Then, while Bob was embedded with the military in Iraq, an improvised explosive device went off near the tank he was riding in. He and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were hit, and Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him.

In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again–and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear. Here are Lee’s heartfelt memories of their courtship, their travels as Bob left a law practice behind and pursued his news career and Lee her freelance business, the glorious births of her children and the challenges of motherhood.

Bob in turn recalls the moment he caught the journalism “bug” while covering Tiananmen Square for CBS News, his love of overseas assignments and his guilt about long separations from his family, and his pride at attaining the brass ring of television news–being chosen to fill the seat of the late Peter Jennings.

And, for the first time, the Woodruffs reveal the agonizing details of Bob’s terrible injuries and his remarkable recovery. We learn that Bob’s return home was not an end to the journey but the first step into a future they have learned not to fear but to be grateful for.

In an Instant is much more than the dual memoir of love and courage. It is an important, wise, and inspiring guide to coping with tragedy–and an extraordinary drama of marriage, family, war, and nation.

A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (February 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400066670
• ISBN-13: 978-1400066674
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #269,848 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fabulous book on terrifying topic, but filled with love and hope, February 28, 2007

By	Shawn S. Sullivan (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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In An Instant is a poignant and powerful book of love, of war, of hope, of recovery and of life. It is truly hard to find an accolade this book does not deserve. It is about Bob Woodruff and and his awful injury while covering the Iraqi war, a month after being promoted to co-anchor replacing Peter Jennings. A man at the apex of his career, who loves doing what he does, a noted world traveler and correspondent and, In An Instant, his and his family's life is quite literally blown to pieces. But it is also book very much about Lee and Bob's marriage, from their first date, and one that would have been worth reading even without the trauma suffered covering the war. Lee writes wonderfully about the career risks Bob made, and she lovingly supported, as he went from a lucrative law career to pursue his passion that he developed for journalism and the rush of covering news events, large and small. Tiananmen Square to a train wreck in Northern California.

This wonderfully written book was done with his wife, Lee, clearly a very capable writer herself and mother of their four children. The construction on the book is cleverly done with its movement back and forth in time, but never confusing to the reader and always done to develop a point or complete a story. Written collaberatively, it is part Lee, descriptive and emotional, holding a family together and, part Bob, ever the facts based journalist. What began as a journal being kept by Lee for Bob, knowing he would want to know what happened while he was in a coma, became this book, appropriately subtitled, "A Family's Journey of Love and Healing".

The recovery of Mr. Woodruff is clearly nothing short of miraculous in an age where we don't believe in miracles. But the strength of his entire family, centered around his wife Lee and his four children, and his own desire to live for these many wonderful reasons is very clear. This book is nothing sappy but clearly heartwarming and, at times, very scary as no one can read it and not wonder how quickly their own lives can change, even without putting oneself in the dangerous situations our journalists do every day in these war ravaged countries.

Readers will start thinking they know and like Bob Woodruff. They will come away loving his family, especially his wife, and very capable writer, Lee.

73 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Will He Still Love Me?", March 1, 2007

By	prisrob "pris," (New EnglandUSA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Lee Woodruff questions her husband's physician " Will he still love me?" Yes, his phyiscian answers. I have not had a patient who didn't love the people he loved before."

'In An Instant' is more than a poignant review of the year in the life of Lee and Bob Woodruff. This book is a reflection of their thoughts, prayers, experiences and day to day life. Bob Woodruff, ABC journalist, was in Iraq to report on the war and was critically injured. Half of his brain, the left half was inujred and that portion of his skull was removed to decrease the swelling. He was operated on at once and flown to Germany to be stabilized and then to Bethesda, Maryland with his critical brain injury. It took 5 weeks of constant care and love by his family and medical team before he awoke. Lee tells us about her struggles and the family issues and the constant anxiety of watching her husband fight for his life. At one point at the end of the five weeks, Lee got into bed with Bob amidst his tubes and lines and told him he needed to fight, they needed him. Two days later she walked into the Intensive Care Unit,and he was sitting up in bed, and said, "Sweetie, Where ya been?" From that time the fight began in earnest for Bob who had suffered a traumatic brain injury to renew his life.

Lee Woodruff, the real hero of the story, gives us an honest, compelling look at what life was like for her. Trying to find time for four children, her husband who was crtically ill, and then recovering and balancing what she needed to do to keep her body and soul together. She talks often of the other families she met, the Iraq and Afghanistan war wounded. When Bob finally did wake up and his rehab and recovery began in earnest,life became busier and she had to become more resilient.

Bob Woodruff during his rehabilitation became involved in the lives of other men and women who had suffered as he did. He will continue to follow the TBI (traumatic brain injured) soldiers and attempt to assist in whatever manner he can. After his recovery he needed to go through more surgery to replace the piece of skull on the left side of his head. Today he looks as he did before his injury. He has had a remarkable recovery. He still has times when he cannot remember some words. He and Lee visited the Intensive Care Unit at Bethesda to thank his caregiving team. Everyone was overwhelmed. Bob was only the fifth person out of hundreds who had recovered enough to come back and visit.

Lee tells an amazing story about Bruce Springsteen and Bob. Bob loves Bruce Springsteen and has his music playing full blast at all times. The day Lee climbed into bed with Bob she told him that if he got better Bruce Springsteen would come and play for him. A few days after Bob woke up he stood up and said "I gotta get one of those string things, a guitar. So I can play with Bruce when he comes.". Oh, oh, Lee thought, Bruce is not coming, but how did Bob hear this?" It is said that people in comas can register voices, and we have an example right here with Bob. Come On Bruce Springsteen, go and play for Bob and the wounded Vets.

Life goes on, we all know that. Disaster, critical injuries, surgery, critical care for 5 weeks or more and then awakening. Followed by recovery and the long journey home. 'In An Instant' life changes and will never again be the same. Lee and Bob Woodruff have shown us the courage and strength it takes to perservere.
Highly recommended. prisrob 3-01-07

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Makes You Feel Good About Being a Human Being, March 3, 2007

By	Arline Curtiss (California) - See all my reviews

It is spiritually uplifting to see beautiful people behave in a beautiful way. Bob Woodruff's wife, Lee, in trying to assess what is now possible after her husband's terrible brain injury asks the doctor, "But will he still love me?" It is a moment of substance in a world where image too often passes for it. This is more than a book of recovery. Bob Woodruff's setback in life seems to be more than that. It seems to have widened his horizons and connected him to his fellow man in ways that he says he could not previously have imagined.

Many people think that happiness is somehow caused by circumstances other than their own thinking. This is not true. Lottery winners, plucked from otherwise disastrous fates by Lady Luck, seldom maintain their new sense of well-being. And normal people, overwhelmed with sudden and unexpected tragedy, can regain their inner happiness despite grievous losses.

I am a board-certified cognitive behavioral therapist specializing in depression. I have seen many different reactions to tragedy among those coming to my office seeking help. When you see someone calmly accept what fate has just handed them, when you watch them immediately seek to make something worthwhile out of their new day instead of vainly looking back and wishing for their former life, when you notice how they steadfastly refuse to entertain a negative option, you can't help but be elevated right along with them. They inspire you to hope that when your own turn to suffer comes along, perhaps you too can prevail as these heroes who have gone ahead to show the way. This is not a book about recovery, this is a book about trancendence. A. B. Curtiss, author of BRAINSWITCH OUT OF DEPRESSION