Life Upside Down: The Fall That Transformed Our Lives, Lifting Me Through Grief, Love and Quadriplegia

How to Come Up From the Depths of Grief, Loss or Life Transition

Beth’s life changed in an instant after her partner crashed on his mountain bike and broke his neck. The story begins when Michael doesn’t return home for dinner while riding a Colorado trail. Search and Rescue found him and transported him to the nearest hospital. With severe spinal cord injuries, he is left paralyzed from the neck down. Beth must navigate the complex world of quadriplegia while coming to grips with the new role she has been thrust into, from partner to caregiver.

She’s dropped into a crevice of deep grief and finds herself in an unexpected apprenticeship with sorrow. She clings to her life mantra of many years—love what is. A state of surrender easy to convey, but so hard to practice. Because how do you love quadriplegia and how do you befriend grief?

Life Upside Down traverses uncategorized grief, mired in the confusion of non-death related loss. Michael was still alive but so much of their life had died.

Beth searches for out-of-the-box ways to cope. She finds the Dagara Grief Ritual from West Africa and she also walks part of the Camino de Santiago in France and Spain.

Both face immense physical and emotional challenges, but through it all, they never lose sight of their love for each other and their determination to persevere. In fact, it propels them forward. Her relationship with Michael helps forge this process like a river carves rock.

Beth shares the ups and downs of her journey with raw honesty and irreverent humor. You will laugh and cry and may do both at the same time. In the end, you will be inspired to continue living your own life with more tools to keep your heart open while being broken open.

In the pages of Life Upside Down you will find:

• Gems of advice for grief whether you are in it or know someone who is
• Inspiration to keep grief moving
• Out-of-the-box tools to befriend grief
• Nature as a resource
• Grief Ritual with Sobonfu Somé from the Dagara tribe of West Africa
• Walking as prayer — Beth walks 110 miles of the Camino de Santiago to grok her losses
• How important it is to find your grief friends
• How to be with someone going through deep grief.
• What to not do or say with someone who’s grieving
• Why do we fawn in grief and what to do instead
• How to be with anger
• The reality of quadriplegia through the lens of the caregiver/partner of someone with spinal cord injury

Life Upside Down is a must-read for anyone facing a major loss or life transition. It’s a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit and the boundless capacity of the human heart to love and to heal. This book will help you come right side up again.

This is a story of hope, of overcoming adversity, and of the power of love to heal even the most profound wounds. Ultimately, it’s about the medicine grief has for us if we open to it.