Coming Home
by Mary McManus
"Wait, I have one more goal," Mary McManus told her personal trainer in February of 2008 shortly after coming out of her toe up leg brace. "I want to run the Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab Hospital." Mary traded in her polio shoes for running shoes and embarked on the journey of a lifetime. Mary McManus was at the height of her career as a VA social worker when she was told by her team at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital's International Rehab Center for Polio in December of 2006 that she needed to quit her job if she had any hope of preventing the progression of post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. In "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility" Mary takes you on her seven year healing odyssey as a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma from her diagnosis, to taking a leap of faith to leave her award winning career at the VA to heal her life and follow her passion as a poet and writer. You'll experience her trials, tribulations and triumphs as she trains for and crosses the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and discovers the opportunity for healing in the wake of new trauma: the suicide of her nephew in 2011, and the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. This is Mary's journey of coming home to her human form free from the influences of the ghastly ghostly invaders who had invaded her sacred earthly home. Her memoir includes journals and blog posts from her seven year healing odyssey. This is her journey of transformation and her message of healing, hope and possibility.
Paperback
English
Brand New
Author Biography
Mary McManus has known challenges since she was five years old beginning with contracting paralytic polio followed by nine years of enduring violence at the hands of family members. Those early challenges helped Mary to grow into the woman that she is today and prepared her to take on the challenge of Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. Mary was diagnosed in December 2006 when she was at the height of her award winning career as a social worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs. As Mary had done when faced with life's trials and tribulations, she got still and asked for Divine Guidance. It came through her divining rod of healing, her pen, as poetry poured forth from her soul. She took a leap of faith leaving her career just three years shy of when she was eligible to retire to heal her life. The first poem she wrote, "Running the Race," foreshadowed her 2009 Boston Marathon run as a mobility impaired runner. Mary feverishly wrote poetry asking the question, 'How will I ever reclaim my life?' and yearning to run unencumbered and free. Eight years after beginning her quest to heal the effects of paralytic polio and trauma, Mary was finally able to get traction on her healing journey and go the distance on the roads and in her life. Mary holds a BS in Communications from Boston University, an MSW from Boston College and many fond memories of her veterans and their families who blessed her life when she worked at the VA . She lives in Chestnut Hill Massachusetts with Tom, her husband, her soul mate and the man who has gone the distance with her for the past 40 years.
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