Having awakened from a seven-month coma brought on by two massive strokes in 1966, Julia Tavalaro found herself, at the age of 33, paralyzed and alone in an unfamiliar hospital. Eventually, she was able to reconstruct the moments preceding her first stroke at her home on Long Island, suffering from a terrible headache and trying to soothe her hungry infant. Tavalaro’s enormous capacity to battle devastating misfortune is on display in her memoir, ”Look Up for Yes,” written with the poet Richard Tayson. But her gifts extend beyond a fierce will for self-recognition, for she is also endowed with extraordinary powers of memory and description that enable her to convey her experiences vividly.

Tavalaro’s is a remarkable life story for anyone interested in alternate communication and the great diversity of human intimacy. The book is available at many bookstores as well as Amazon.com: LOOK UP FOR YES