I am lucky to have a large, loving and supportive family. I am grateful to the State of Maryland for helping me and for my Autumn Lake at Crofton nursing home. I hope for a time when I can take care of myself and travel again. I have my eyes on the prize. I try to walk every day and keep my leg strong. We must be more than a string of experiences and deeds. If just one person reads something in the book and thinks, I have thought that before or that sounds like me, I will be satisfied.
I am a 58-year-old teacher, writer, and parent to Sam, 22, whom I raised on my own. In 2019, I had a stroke while I was teaching in Mexico. I have struggled not to become bitter and to remain full of gratitude for this beautiful world and the great people in it with whom I have crossed paths. When I think about my future, I envision myself lucky enough to have a grandchild or two, and to live close to my son. I can speak and think, so I consider myself fortunate to be living a long and interesting life. I keep hope alive for my future.
Title by Lucy Osius
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“I can close my eyes and go back to so many places, but I must be more than a string of memories.”
My Left Hand, a memoir by Lucy Osius, depicts a life full of contrasts. Lucy has lived in Colorado, the highest state in the USA, where it often snowed on the Fourth of July, and broiled under a Middle Eastern sun, so hot one could fry an egg on the sidewalk. She’s been broke and comfortably well off; she’s been both athletic and wheelchair-bound. Lucy has done many jobs—some lowly, many gratifying—and, as a teacher, has been entrusted with people’s most valuable entity, their children. She has spent parts of her life deeply in love and in others, terribly lonely. She’s not sure why God gave her such lessons and experiences; she can only attest to this one life.
Lucy says, “In writing this memoir, I’ve tried to learn more about myself and other people and to relive my life from my place now in a wheelchair. Writing has given my life purpose and focus and shape.
I hope you come to care about the girl in the book. I hope you see yourself in the contrasts and in other ways too. We are all connected in some way, like a root system.”