Into the Blue
A Father's Flight and a Daughter's Return
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Chicago Sun Times praises "Into the Blue is Susan Edsall's fascinating chronicle of the fight to get her father back into his beloved Big Sky...an engagingly readable testament to an everyday courage....Salted with hilarious memories of Edsall family life, peppered with touching reminiscences of flight with her father, [Edsall] mixes the positive with the painful until it's not only palatable but also poignant."
Three years ago, Susan Edsall's father, a rebuilder and pilot of antique airplanes, suffered a devastating stroke that left him unable to read, write, speak, tell time, understand the alphabet---or fly. The doctors told Susan the best her family could hope for was that he would learn to play checkers. Susan knew if her dad couldn't fly, he'd just as soon not breathe, so she chose another path. Battling the pessimistic conclusion of the experts---and her own looming fears---she and her sister, Sharon, aka the Blister Sisters, decided to take matters into their own hands. With no medical training but double doses of determination, they bushwhacked their own rehab program and got their father back behind the controls of his beloved open-cockpit biplane and into the air.
Susan Edsall's Into the Blue is a powerful family memoir about two feisty sisters from Montana who bring their father back to life---and discover themselves in the process. Inspiring, gritty, and often hilarious, it's also the story of anyone who has ever fought back from a dire prognosis to pursue a cherished dream.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When Edsall's father, an avid antique plane pilot and rebuilder, was reduced to a frustrated, partially-paralyzed mute after suffering a mild stroke, Edsall and her sister, Sharon, rallied to the challenge of teaching him how to speak, read, write, drive--and fly--once more. Faced with a"too bad, so sad" attitude from medical staff, the sisters studied teachers' guides from the local bookstore and took turns in two-week stints, returning to the family home in Montana to work with their father."I laid out all my plans for the next day, the lessons in thirty-minute blocks," writes Edsall."I made flash cards with the alphabet on them. I arranged my cache of books on the buffet table, which converted nicely into a makeshift library." After two months of this relentless, proactive regimen--not without its poignant setbacks--their father had almost completely recovered his faculties and was miraculously able to soar his 1942 BT-13 through the clouds once again. Edsall superbly weaves childhood memories, past flying adventures and family foibles into her uplifting narrative. While this account is certainly sentimental, the father's triumphant rehabilitation--along with his daughters' obvious devotion, nerve and diligence--will undoubtedly inspire other stroke survivors and their families. Photos throughout.
