Customer Reviews

A Mind of My Own: memoir of recovery from Aphasia

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I'm posting this review of my daughter's book for my friend Elmer West, who has no email: This book is the detailed, personal account of Harrianne Mills' recovery from serious physical injuries and devastating brain damage following a motorcycle accident in Greece in May 1985. She was rushed to the hospital, quickly examined, declared to be dead and sent to the morgue. Only then was it discovered that she was in a coma. The coma lasted only 12 hours but her recovery took an agonizing year as she slowly began to recognize family members, remember her own identity and learn again how to walk, talk, think and read. Harrianne's recovery was the result of good medical help, much of it related to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, and the loving care of her mother through most of that staggering journey toward normalcy. Beyond everything else, it was due to her indomitable will to get well. She tells her own story in stark detail, buttressed by medical records and input from family and friends. For twelve years before the accident she was a college professor of classical languages. Now she is on the staff of the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology. This story has the thrust of a beyond belief novel; except that it is the true story of an amazingly bright, free spirited woman who never gave up!

Ms. Mills provides insights into how her mind functioned (and failed to function) during her long recovery from a severe brain injury. As the reader follows the author's mental re-"connections" to her bodily functions, her family, her friends, her work, her social interactions, her emotions, and her views on life itself, the reader can assess and reassess his or her own "connections."

An excellent book to understand Aphasia, one that an individual might not think is interesting, yet is fascinating. Aphasia was a word I did not know. Strokes and brain injuries occur too often for us not to understand them, both from the point of view of the caretaker and the caregiver.

Harrianne Mills' book, A Mind of My Own, is a gem. It is a moving, enlightening account of a Classics Professor's recovery from aphasia. Ms. Mills is, indeed, a gifted and engaging writer.