GONE

Olson’s debut memoir tracks the author’s remarkable tale of recovery after a devastating accident.

In 1979, Olson, a radiology resident, and her husband, Dave Hodgens, were visiting Hodgens’ parents, who were stationed at a U.S. Army base in Stuttgart, Germany. While there, a train accident cost Olson both of her legs, amputated above the knees, and her dominant arm, amputated at the shoulder. She was taken from the local hospital to the trauma center in Salzburg, Austria. Olson, then 29, did not see Dave until the following day. Having taken stock of her injuries, she came to a decision. Her first words to Dave were, “I’ve been thinking about things….I’ll understand if you don’t want to stick around.” The pact they made that day more than 40 years ago—that as a team, they could do anything—has never been broken. Olson’s riveting narrative is about love and devotion as much as it is about attitude and tenacity. Although she saw herself as an “egg-shaped bundle of bandages,” she remained upbeat. “Attitude was the only thing I had control of,” she writes, “so my mind went into overdrive trying to be optimistic and cheerful.” It was what had her walking on prosthetic legs only a few months after the accident, propelled her to complete her residency, and enabled her to give birth to and raise two children. The memoir is gritty but never gruesome or maudlin. It is deeply personal and highly informative. Olson describes in detail the arduous, painful process of attaching her prosthetic legs and learning how to walk on them. Sometimes, she says, it still is just easier to “butt walk,” which she accomplishes by “putting my residual legs [less than 10 inches long] straight out in front of me, and moving forward one butt cheek at a time.” She adds, with her usual self-deprecating humor, “It pretty much makes me the human equivalent of a snail.”

Inspirational, gripping, and a testament to positive thinking.