Love You Hard

In August of 2012, I found out that my best friend’s husband, TC, had been brutally attacked in Washington, D.C., and was in the hospital suffering from severe traumatic brain injury. As quickly as I could, I raced to the hospital to be by my friend Abby’s side and we waited to hear from the doctors if he would survive.

TC did survive. But his recovery involved him relearning how to breathe, walk and talk again. It required months of intense therapy and multiple surgeries. Abby had to take a leave of absence from her job as an elementary school teacher to be a full-time caregiver to TC.

Throughout the arduous recovery process, Abby began writing as a form of therapy, working through her grief and pain, and using it to understand how brain injury not only had affected TC’s brain, but also how is was affecting hers. They both had to work at relearning their love for one another and forging ahead in a marriage that had made them strangers to each other in the wake of this tragedy.

In writing through this experience, her memoir, “Love You Hard” was born. It is an incredibly detailed account of their journey through the world of traumatic brain injury and what it took to rebuild their life together, stronger than ever.

This powerful memoir has received nationwide attention on the “Today Show,“ and with reviews from New York Times bestselling authors Maria Shriver and Kelly Corrigan. Maria Shriver stated, “Inspiring, touching, and beautifully written.”

Chesapeake Family Life will be hosting its first Book Club Brunch event for “Love You Hard.” It will take place on Sunday, May 19 at ArtFarm Annapolis. Abby will do a reading, a Q&A and a book signing. Watch our Facebook page for more details.

—Claire Dougherty Kovacs