“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.”