Crash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Rachel’s husband David survives a plane crash, but his skull is split open. He’s left with severe brain damage and she is left alone. Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for their two young children, and now an irrational, incontinent, seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible. What kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, raised to do the right thing, the honorable thing. And – according to David’s family – keeping him in an institution is certainly not the right thing. Crash: A memoir of Motherhood, Survival and Guilt tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts about caretaking for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member.