I Lived to Tell the Tale: Glimpses from the Past

I Lived to Tell the Tale: Glimpses from the Past
ISBN-10
1908026294
ISBN-13
9781908026293
Category
Biography & Autobiography
Pages
164
Language
English
Published
2011
Publisher
Spiderwize
Author
Elizabeth Ball

Description

This is the remarkable story of Elizabeth Ball, who fell out of an upstairs window onto concrete slabs, on her head, in Wednesbury, in the Black Country, when she was 22-months old. The incident was reported on the front page of The Express and Star of June 27, 1957. Elizabeth was pronounced dead by the doctor who attended her, and she was laid out on the dining room table and covered by a sheet. However, her mother's GP arrived and detected a pulse. Elizabeth spent months in a coma in Hallum Hospital, during which time the Express and Star reporter cycled to the hospital daily to check on her progress. Eventually it was the flash of his camera that woke her out of the coma. She suffered brain damage, but in spite of all odds grew up under the careful care of her mother, who said that her daughter "would live to tell the tale." Eventually she was able to learn to read and write, and this is the book (I Lived to Tell the Tale) in which she tells her story. Elizabeth, who now lives in Prestatyn, in Denbighshire, writes: "Mom said that one day I would tell this tale-in fact, she told me to tell the whole world that I lived to tell the tale, and that's why I have written this book, for I have lived to tell the tale in my own way, for I had to persevere and learn to read and write at a later stage in life. It was my mom, too, who chose the title of this book, years before she died. I might have told my tale in a higgledy-piggledy fashion, for so many moments from the past crowd in and demand expression, but I hope it will be evocative for many readers who might have had similar experiences and who share similar memories."

Similar books