Unshattered: Overcoming Tragedy and Choosing a Beautiful Life

by Carol J. Decker, Stacey L. Nash

Overview

On June 10, 2008, Carol Decker walked through the hospital doors a healthy woman with flu-like symptoms and early labor contractions. Three months later, she returned home a blind, triple-amputee struggling to bond with a daughter she would never see.

Unshattered: Overcoming Tragedy and Choosing a Beautiful Life recounts Carol's fight for survival against sepsis and its life-shattering complications. From excruciating skin grafts to learning how to function in daily life without lower legs, a left hand, and her sight, Carol takes us on a personal and raw, yet inspiring journey. She travels through the darkness of trauma, anxiety, and depression to arrive, literally, at the peak of a mountain with a heart full of gratitude and love. More than a story of triumph over tragedy, the book offers inspiring life-lessons and insights which can help readers to do more than endure unimaginable pain and darkness in their own lives. This book can give them the perspective and strength to pick up the pieces of their own tragedies and choose a life of healing, purpose, and joy--a beautiful life.

Lessons learned:

1. There is always hope, even if it sometimes feels small and hard to find.
2. Even if you are the most capable person, you can't do this life alone. We all need a support system. It is okay to ask for help.
3. Happiness takes work. It doesn't just happen.
4. The human spirit is able to endure and withstand great adversity.
5. Even the smallest broken pieces of a life can be put back together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629724164
Publisher:	Shadow Mountain Publishing
Publication date:	06/05/2018
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	229,197
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carol J. Decker survived sepsis while pregnant with her second daughter, resulting in multiple amputations and complete blindness. She travels across the nation as a motivational speaker, speaking at colleges, universities, churches, and hospitals. She hopes to share by example that anyone can choose a beautiful life and that with an optimistic attitude, the right perspective, and determination anything is possible.
 
Stacey L. Nash is a happily married mother of four who sleeps too little, sings too loud, and keeps a stash of dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses in her purse. She works as a freelance writer and specializes in family and parenting issues, but enjoys any writing that lets her do in-depth research. She and her family live in the middle of forty heavily-wooded acres where they split lots of firewood and avoid the local bear.  

Read an Excerpt

"I need you to sign these papers," another nurse said, handing me paperwork with print so tiny I couldn't read the words.

"Why? What for? Is my baby okay?"

"You have to sign these before we can perform the emergency C-section. Please, we need to go."

The pen was in my hand. I signed. The bed started moving. All I could think about was my baby. Any illusion of control I had fled as decisions were no longer mine to make. My only option was to offer a complete surrender of myself. I still didn't know what was causing my symptoms, and no explanations were offered. There simply wasn't time.

They pushed my bed out of the room and down the hall. Fluorescent lights flashed overhead in an eerie striped pattern of light and dark like the scene from a dozen different medical dramas. Only this wasn't television. This was real. I was living a medical emergency that was spinning out of control. The gurney bumped as light and dark continued to lead us down the hall.

I looked at the faces of the people rushing with me--a nurse at each side and Scott behind my head. I could see the fear that flowed through my body reflected in their faces. I turned back, trying to focus on Scott. While he showed little emotion, his eyes--eyes I knew so well--told a different story. Fear broke through his normally cool exterior. When we stopped at the double doors of the operating room, I looked at my husband. The harsh glow of overhead lights couldn't hide the sharp, handsome features of his face.

"Can he come with me?" I asked. I could feel the cracks breaking through my armor, starting small but spreading. I wanted him with me. I needed him by my side.

"No, I'm sorry. He's not allowed." I could hear the regret in her voice.

The cracks deepened, but there wasn't time to argue.

Had I known what was to come, I would have waited, stared, and drunk in every angle, every nuance of the man I married--the curve of his lips, the straightness of his back, the tilt of his head, the look in his eye. I would have burned it all into my memory. But I didn't know. Nobody did.

"You're going to be okay. I'll be here when you get out." He said good-bye with a kiss.

A final glance at the doorway was the last time I saw Scott's face with my own eyes.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Resilient 6

2 Shattered 12

3 A Beautiful Life 17

4 A Broken Vessel 31

5 Foundations of Love 48

6 Into the Dark 69

7 Surrendering with Blind Faith 92

8 Exist or Live 120

9 Letting Go 142

10 Perspective 158

11 Strap on Your Gear and Go 179

Acknowledgments 200

Bibliography 204