Treasures in trauma : what I learned from whitewater, stroke, cancer, floods and fires
(Book)

"She planned for perfection; she got transformation"

Includes bibliographical references.

"In the summer of 2004, Elaine Yarbrough thought life couldn’t get any better. She and her husband Mike were doing the work they loved developing the human side of organizations worldwide. Their 20-year-old daughter, Lindsay, had just returned from college for a family kayak trip on the Salmon River in Idaho. This vacation, however, would change their lives. What started with a fall into six inches of water led to Mike’s stroke further downstream and a heart-stopping race out of the river. Mike spent much of the next two and a half months in rehabilitation to create new brain pathways and re-learn how to eat, walk, and remember. On the day of Mike’s release home, Elaine was met with excitement and joy, and at the same time, trepidation replacing the work of many nurses. She was thrown back into whitewater to churn, survive, and eventually thrive as she began appreciating an imperfect life. Often faced with adversity, Elaine shares stories of perseverance with vivid candor, and reflects on the experiences that shaped her. She grew up in a 700-square-foot house in Waco, Texas, with a large, eccentric cast of characters. Her dad was homeless by age 11 after witnessing his mother murdered by his stepfather. Elaine’s academic prowess, from valedictorian to doctorate, became her ticket out. In 1975, while teaching a consortium for public officials a beautiful relationship blossomed in the Big Easy, Elaine met Mike Burr from Houston, a Burt Reynolds lookalike. A move to Boulder, marriage, and a baby girl soon followed. Mike joined Elaine’s company in 1990 and the dynamic duo traveled the world co-consulting organizational development in places like Switzerland and eastern Europe. From there, Elaine describes her devastation of losing so much of their life together after Mike’s stroke. Treasures in Trauma chronicles the exploration of love when your partner is not the same in mind and body. Elaine recounts her struggle to balance hope and reality, maintaining self and supporting her husband, encouraging Mike and letting him find his own way. She details her deepened Quaker faith and community of caring people—friends, family, strangers—who became a soothing balm of recovery once she learned to embrace help. In juggling caregiver and career to the frightening early days of stroke recovery, fire, flood, and breast cancer, Elaine brings us deep inside a passage through trauma to transformation. It can be difficult to see fertile terrain beyond grief and sadness. By waiting, listening, noticing, and healing the mind, body, and spirit, treasures and truths slowly reveal themselves. In sharing her family’s journey so openly, Elaine aims to help those hurting find a way through"--,Amazon.