Ginger T. Manley

A memoir of sorts, about life with a one-armed man and his "damned artificial arm". Although, it really should be his "damned artificial armory", since at any given time the author's husband has available several different hands and hooks modified for various functions. In 1967, Ginger Trundle, a slightly burned-out RN, was traveling through Europe on the cheap, trying her best to avoid Americans (particularly American men) when she encountered a spot of difficulty over a botched room reservation, and reluctantly accepted assistance from a young American tour director. He offered to lend her money for a decent hotel room, took her to dinner (at which she first realized one of his hands was prosthetic), and a two-week fling followed. Although she returned to the US, without telling him that she suspected she was pregnant, he contacted her again before long and announced that he couldn't imagine living without her, and after knowing each other for two months, they were married. His family thought he had won the lottery---an RN who could take care of him if his disability eventually required it, and a lovely girl at that; HER family thought she had lost her mind. The service-related accident that cost John Manley his left hand also involved a significant traumatic brain injury and loss of most of his left ear. As a second lieutenant in the Air Force, near the end of the training meant to prepare him for service in Viet Nam, John had somehow walked into the propeller of a single engine plane in which he had been giving a flying lesson. Decades later, when he heard the news story about a fashion model suffering a very similar accident, John got up from his breakfast table, went into his study and composed a letter to that young woman, encouraging her to believe that her life would go on, as his had, and that grace, dignity and even humor need not be lost to her. Much of this book is about the role humor has played in John Manley's life---both he and Ginger have an abundance of it, and as she says it not only has helped him to deal with what he no longer views as a "disability", but it is a great diffuser of tension and awkwardness when meeting "normies" who don't know what to say or where to look when confronted with an amputee.

This book was self-published, and I suspect printed-on-demand, but is of pretty high quality both in content and construction. There are some continuity issues, and overall it is more episodic than cohesive, but it's a satisfying and uplifting read.

Ginger Manley is a sex therapist formerly associated with the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; due to two knee replacements and bilateral hearing aids (John can only wear one) she now claims to be more "artificial" than her husband, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute who has had many jobs since being forced to abandon the Air Force career he had planned for, among them human resources director, labor negotiator, professional mediator and administrative law judge. John is also an avid golfer, fisherman, general risk-taker, and competitive as hell. In the interest of full disclosure I will point out that he is a distant cousin of mine, although I have not seen him since approximately 1970. His father was a distinctive, if occasional, presence in my life when I was a child, and his mother was a mentor to my mother's teen-aged self. I reviewed Ginger's previous book [Gotcha Covered] here a few years ago.

Reviewed in June, 2015… (más)

When Ginger Manley's great-aunt moved out of her farmhouse and turned over a collection of vintage domestic aprons to her, Ginger and her classmates from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing (Class of 1966) were motivated to create The Nurses' Apron Partnership to help nurses provide services they might not otherwise be able to manage, in Tennessee and in Kenya. This book is an anthology of creative pieces, inspired by those old aprons, which are featured in photographs at the beginning of each selection. Most are reflections or reminiscences; there are a few poems, some short fiction, a delightful collage, and the beautiful watercolor which graces the cover. The proceeds from sales of the book go to Burning Bush, Inc., a microcredit organization established by a former Vanderbilt nursing instructor, to make educational loans to the Mt. Kenya cluster of Private Nurse Practitioners, who provide the majority of maternity and primary care to women in their area. You are unlikely to find this book in your local library or bookstore, but if you are inclined to help make a difference in a small way, while giving your eyes and heart a treat, you can purchase a copy through the TNAP website.… (más)