Brave Lotus Flower Rides the Dragon
"Why walk when you can soar..."
These are the opening words on Tracy Todd’s website and they are a powerful affirmation of the person Tracy is today – a sought-after inspirational speaker whose uplifting presentations have inspired and given hope to many people. But it is difficult to imagine what she has overcome in a tough and often lonely journey.
At the age of twenty-eight her life was turned upside down when a horrific road accident left her a quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down. Her life as an athletic, marathon-running young mother and teacher was abruptly shattered. Despite months of rehabilitation, Tracy often found herself wondering if her life was worth living. Everything she had taken for granted was now beyond her reach and frustration at her helplessness threatened to overwhelm her. Against the odds, Tracy chose to live.
Her strength of character and determination prevailed and, sustained by the support of her son, family and friends, her care assistants, and an unbelievably caring community, she set about gaining the independence to rebuild her life and reclaim her identity – which she has done, with dignity and grace. Brave Lotus Flower Rides The Dragon is an honest, inspiring and engaging memoir in which Tracy’s natural warmth and humour are tangible and, most importantly, she embodies what the human spirit can achieve.
Lives can be changed in an instant. For Tracy Todd, that moment came in April 1998. She had walked out of her home with her husband, holding their baby on her hip and dragging a suitcase packed with beach clothes.
Seven weeks later, she was pushed through their front door in a wheelchair, unable to move anything except her head. Everything had changed.
In her memoir Tracy reconstructs the horrifying moments of the accident, and her memory of the split second when she realised that her neck had broken and that from this moment on, everything would be different. We follow her through the first awful days and weeks of her rehabilitation, when she began to learn that everything she’d taken for granted before was now beyond her reach: she couldn’t, at least initially, breathe without assistance, talk, or eat, or evacuate her bowels. When, at her own insistence, she was put in a wheelchair, she fainted repeatedly. She hoped to die.
But eventually she went home. Ramps were built. Showers were adapted. Her one-year-old son learned that his mother was different. And her husband at first rejected and then abandoned her.
Against all odds, Tracy chose to live – and to do so independently. Divorced, and living on her own with helpers, Tracy learned to turn what had appeared to be a life of humiliation and victim-hood into one in which she took charge of her choices and learned what options were available.
Tracy lives in Mbombela and has become an accomplished and muchsought-after public speaker, inspiring many with her story. She has played a significant and critical role in raising her son. And most significantly, she has found love and emotional fulfilment.
Her story, written using Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, is engrossing, emotionally engaging, humorous and sometimes frustrating, but it never fails to inspire.
Brave Lotus Flower Rides the Dragon is an honest and intimate memoir that looks into the life of a South African quadriplegic. Many people have never met a quadriplegic and have no idea how to respond when they do. Tracy’s candid details of how she has coped, physically and emotionally, with various day-to-day activities like eating, reading, writing, communicating, bathing and going to the toilet, as well as her romantic and sexual experiences, lays it all bare.
She is a woman who will touch your heart.
| Author | Tracy Todd |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Tracy McDonald Publishers |
| Place | Johannesburg |
| Year | 2017 |
| ISBN | 9780620725972 |
| Binding | Paperback |
| Condition | Very Good |
How we describe the condition of our books
We are very proud of the condition of the books we sell (please read our testimonials to find out more!)
New: Exactly as it says.
As New: Pretty much new but shows small signs of having been read; inside it will be clean without any inscriptions or stamps; might contain a remainder mark.
Very Good: Might have some creases on the spine; no hard cracks; maybe slight forward lean and short inscription inside; perhaps very minor bumping on the corners of the book; inside clean but the page edges might be slightly yellowed.
Good: A few creases on the spine, perhaps a forward lean, bumping on corners or shelfwear; maybe an inscription inside or some shelfwear or a small tear or two on the dustjacket; inside clean but page edges might be somewhat yellowed.
Fair: In overall good condition, might have a severe forward lean to the spine, an inscription, bumping to corners; one or two folds on the covers and yellowed pages; in exceptional cases these books might contain some library stamps and stickers or have neat sticky tape which was used to fix a short, closed tear.
Poor: We rarely sell poor condition books, unless the books are in demand and difficult to find in a better condition. Poor condition books are still perfect for a good read, all pages will be intact and none threatening to fall out; most probably a reading copy only.