Review: A Leg to Stand On by Colleen Haggerty

A Leg to Stand On

by Colleen Haggerty

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 244

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  When Colleen Haggerty lost her leg in an accident during her senior year of high school, she could have retreated from life and let her disability become her defining quality and no one would have blamed her for it. Instead, she went the opposite way. In the years following her accident, Haggerty explored her physical world with vigor, testing the limits of her body by joining a ski team, playing with a co-ed soccer team, and taking up kayaking and backpacking. She also tested the limits of her heart, pursuing love and passion with restless men. In A Leg to Stand On, Haggerty recounts her life as a disabled woman, from redefining herself as a young woman after tragedy fierce and able, but haunted by hard choices and suppressed grief to choosing marriage and motherhood. That choice comes at great cost to the physical freedom Haggerty has fought for, but ultimately she redemption, fulfillment, and self-acceptance in the bargain. No one will read this book without being inspired to accept their past and create the future they always wanted." 


Kritters Thoughts:  A moving memoir that takes you into one woman's life before and after a tragedy that completely changes her life.  Colleen Haggerty found herself in an accident where she loses one of her legs and each day after the accident she learns something about herself and how the accident didn't just change her physical life but also her emotional life.

I absolutely appreciated that Colleen included a few moments before the accident and the accident itself - although the fact that she was awake for most of it was completely scary to read.  It helped the reading experience to know her life before the accident during and then knowing that most of it would be after the accident.  

Although I have been aware of the physical challenges that a disabled person would have; I don't think I really knew it until I read this story.  I had never thought of the gaining weight whether in pregnancy or just in life and the need for different legs if that were to happen.  The biggest thing that I don't think anyone "sees" is the emotional toll it can take and that it is a constant thing that a disabled person doesn't really ever heal from.  

I love it when I read a book that I know in my heart is true, but it reads like fiction with such ease.  I also adore when I really feel connected and honestly believe that I am learning something that will make me a more informed human and make me a little more sensitive to someone that I may not know personally.  Such a great book!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.