This Hardcover Book item from Random House was reviewed on 3-Nov-2008.
Search ISBN:1400066670 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing Reference Book. Classifications : Formats Accessories Alternative Formats Audiobooks Boxed Sets Calendars eDocs Historical Reproductions Large Print Libros en español Sheet Music & Scores Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General A . Click the following link to view the cover of In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing. Related topics: Formats. Accessories. Alternative Formats. Audiobooks. Boxed Sets. Calendars. eDocs. Large Print. Libros en español. Custom Stores. requestid: 9cc472dd-c5e0-4377-bc7f-5ed2fd521b57
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1) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. Having been tossed into an experience of a spouse of 30 years having a critically serious brain surgery, this book rung so true to the joys, deep depression, and aganizing experience of TBI. While my experience had nothing to do with a public figure as large as Bob Woodruff nor a war injury, the end result of a TBI aptly descriped the hell that the injured, as well as the spouse/caretaker walks not just immediately, but for the long haul. The caretaker, in this case, Lee Woodruff was brutally honest about the emotions and the sheer exhaustion that the caretaker undergoes. I read this book in less than two days. It also shone light on the truth of miracles of the human brain to "rewire" itself. I applauded both Bob Woodruff and Lee Woodruff for their unending honesty in dealing with the topic of TBI.¤ 2) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. This is a love story. One might question this when a journalist has to fight for his life after being wounded while covering the Iraqi war, but not once you read Lee and Bob Woodruff´s amazingly poignant story. This is their love story-the story of Bob and Lee, and how their love came to be and sustained them through a year of pain, hope, fear, recovery, and dedication.
Told in alternating time frames from the dreadful moment when Lee is called and told that Bob has been critically injured to how they met and fell in love. Lee tells her account of their love story with passion and feeling, while Bob is as always the accomplished journalist with his fact based style of recollection. Both Lee and Bob are heroes in this story. Bob´s valiant effort to handle his severe injuries mostly to the brain, and Lee´s courageous, steadfast support and love throughout the entire process make up this amazingly miraculous story.
Bob, only recently having been named co-anchor of ABC News, was in Iraq imbedded with troops covering the Iraqi war while Lee and their four children were at Disney World. While that may sound almost callous to many, this is the life a journalist and his family. When a bomb explodes and Bob is literally blown to pieces, not much hope seems to exist that he will survive as Lee is rushed to her husband´s side. Telling about how she got the call and what immediately transpired, Lee aptly recounts their story first hand and truly earns the title of In an Instant: A Family´s Journey of Love and Healing because that is what happened to this family in just one minute.
In the above-mentioned alternating writing style, the story goes back to Bob´s leaving a profitable law profession to pursue his dream of being a journalist. Bob´s hard work and passion for covering the news takes him through the rank and file in many amazing places and stories as he works his way up in his journalism career. The part of the story of Lee and Bob´s personal life is interspersed with the realities of Bob´s day-to-day survival and recovery following the bomb in Iraq.
Bob´s 5 week coma, swelling of the brain, and many near death complications are told with detail and clarity so that the reader really experiences, as much as possible, first hand what this family went through. The never ending waiting to see if Bob will survive is a story of such devotion that in reality, you wonder just how someone can go through something like that. Lee tells this story in a way that makes you realize that you can never know, as did she, until you are tested, how you would respond in a situation such as this. At one point, after about five weeks, Lee crawls up into bed with Bob to try and hold him, with all his medical contraptions and tubes, and she tells him that he must fight for his life because she and their four children need him. Barely leaving his side, Lee is shocked when a few days later she walks into his room and he is sitting up and asking her where she has been?! It is at that point that the real fight begins for Bob to work hard to return to his life as he knew it. Meanwhile, Lee must juggle duel roles of parent and caregiver.
This compelling story of love and devotion is told with honesty, humor, and hope. The friendships both Lee and Bob have, the love and family they share, guides one through an often graphic but also witty and very human novel. Get the book In An Instant and you will find it won´t take much longer than that to be hooked and not want to put it down!
Submitted by Karen Haney: Originally published Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)¤ 3) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. This is a memoir written by Bob and Lee Woodruff. The passages are divided between Bob and Lee, each giving their recollection of the way certain events unfolded. I found Bob´s accounts to be gripping and interesting, maybe because he is the one who received the traumatic injury. I found Lee´s writing akin to reading a bad soap opera script. It was almost unreadable at times. I understand that she is facing hardships with her husband in a coma, but it nothing like what your typical family has to face under the same circumstances. At one point, this Colgate educated woman wonders how she is going to pay the bills with her husband in a coma? When I read this, I got the feeling that she didn´t know how to pay the bills, i.e. write out a check and mail it. I don´t think money is an issue for this Westchester County, NY family. It was passages like that which detract from the book. I found Bob´s account of his therapy and what he had to go through to get back to himself very interesting but too brief. In the after forward, Bob mentions he is working on a documentary about his journey and the journey GIs have to make in recovering from traumatic brain injuries. I don´t know if this has come out yet, but it would be an interesting show.¤ 4) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. This story recounts the miraculous survival of news anchor Bob Woodruff. More importantly, it exposes the fear, frustration, and fatigue that Woodruff´s family experienced as they guided him through months of trauma.¤ 5) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. This book tells the serious story of the tragedy and triumph shared by Bob Woodruff and his wife, children, friends and co-workers when he was devastatingly injured while reporting in Iraq. The trauma of his head injury is explained in a very detailed manner, and his subsequent recovery is followed mainly from his wife´s point of view, describing the horrors they all went through. The ability to deal with all of this makes this book a very moving and uplifting tale of how Bob and also our brave soldiers are coping with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and why it is important for all of us to become aware and understand this signature war injury of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The poignant and matter of fact telling of the process to recovery is sprinkled with humor and makes a great read for those interested in learning how to move through this difficult situation.¤ 6) Hardcover Book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Random House. In one of the most anticipated books of the year, Lee Woodruff, along with her husband, Bob Woodruff, share their never-before-told story of romance, resilience, and survival following the tragedy that transformed their lives and gripped a nation.
In January 2006, the Woodruffs seemed to have it all–a happy marriage and four beautiful children. Lee was a public relations executive and Bob had just been named co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. Then, while Bob was embedded with the military in Iraq, an improvised explosive device went off near the tank he was riding in. He and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were hit, and Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him.
In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again–and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear. Here are Lee’s heartfelt memories of their courtship, their travels as Bob left a law practice behind and pursued his news career and Lee her freelance business, the glorious births of her children and the challenges of motherhood.
Bob in turn recalls the moment he caught the journalism “bug” while covering Tiananmen Square for CBS News, his love of overseas assignments and his guilt about long separations from his family, and his pride at attaining the brass ring of television news–being chosen to fill the seat of the late Peter Jennings.
And, for the first time, the Woodruffs reveal the agonizing details of Bob’s terrible injuries and his remarkable recovery. We learn that Bob’s return home was not an end to the journey but the first step into a future they have learned not to fear but to be grateful for.
In an Instant is much more than the dual memoir of love and courage. It is an important, wise, and inspiring guide to coping with tragedy–and an extraordinary drama of marriage, family, war, and nation.
A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 1-Dec-2008, 14000666709781400066674, 010-690-360-860-701-411-GYB-C8B-S4B-8 
In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, Book, Image © Random House
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