Be Still

A moving, insightful, and inspiring story of recovery by a practitioner who became the patient.

Horrific crash inspires writer in tell-all book
It is a narrative account of [Val Lougheed’s] acute recovery from a head-on collision. It is meant to inform and hopefully inspire others -- practitioners, patients themselves, families, and friends of anyone who has sustained catastrophic injuries. (Oshawa Living, November 12, 2008)

Excerpt

The very next thing I remember is waking up in a bed in a hospital, with Caleb and Jesse, my two grown-up sons, looking at me. Everything in my field of vision was white and clean and neat. It felt nice in a very calm sort of a way. It was very, very quiet, which felt soothing, because I was so tired. The ceilings, which were also white, were really high, which gave me a good feeling of space and an airy openness that made it easy to breathe. There were shiny silver railings up on both sides of my bed, which made me feel all warm and cozy and snug. I couldn’t really move, but that didn’t concern me much.

Caleb looked directly into my eyes and, with great caring and clarity, told me that Pam and I had been in car accident and now I was in the hospital. I will never ever, in my whole life, forget the sense of calmness and peace that Caleb instilled in me at that moment...

Everything moved in slow motion for me. I couldn’t really think right, and my mind seemed to be in this dreamy fog. I sort of wanted to know what happened, but I really didn’t want to get out of my fog because it was so comfortable there and I was so tired. I eventually asked if Pam was hurt. Apparently, she was in another room with a crushed foot, some broken ribs and lots of bruises, but she would be OK. It took some time for this to register, and I think I just went back to sleep for a while or drifted into “la-la” land. Then, I asked if it was my fault. The boys said no – the collision took place in our lane – there was nothing I could do. I remember that knowing this made me feel good. Then, after another sleep break, I asked about the person who hit us. “Um…he died” one of the boys reluctantly answered, and I let this sink in for a while too.

I had no great emotion about anything Caleb and Jesse were telling me – it was just random information drifting into my comfortable white-hued fog-world. I found it sort of interesting, but I had no recollection of anything happening to me. I had not been in an accident, I was just hearing about one.

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Be Still is now being used as a text book at the University of Calgary and also at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton with under-graduate and graduate students specializing in Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies.

"Thank You again for sharing the story of your accident and recovery with our University of Calgary class on Tuesday. Your honesty, your willigness to share with openness with strangers, your quiet yet powerful presence, have all been a truly valuable, moving, and inspiring learning experience. There were more people who considered your visit a highlight of the course." - Dorota Mosiewicz-Patalas, University of Calgary student

 

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