In Sickness and in Health: Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of of Interabled Romance
Written by Ben Mattlin
Narrated by Rene Ruiz
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A frank, humorous exploration of interabled dating, love, and marriage
Ben Mattlin's wife, ML, recalls falling in love with his confidence and sheer determination. On one of their earliest dates, he persuaded her to ride on his lap in his wheelchair on their way home from an Elvis Costello concert. Thirty years later, they still travel like this from time to time, undaunted by the curious stares following them down the street.
But In Sickness and in Health is more than an "inspiring" story of how a man born with spinal muscular atrophy—a congenital and incurable neuromuscular condition—survived childhood, graduated from Harvard, married an able-bodied woman, built a family with two daughters and a cat and a turtle, established a successful career in journalism, and lived happily ever after. As Mattlin considers the many times his relationship has been met with surprise or speculation by outsiders—those who consider his wife a "saint" or him just plain "lucky" for finding love—he issues a challenge to listeners: why should the idea of an "interabled" couple be regarded as either tragic or noble?
Through conversations with more than a dozen other couples of varying abilities, ethnic backgrounds, and orientations, Mattlin sets out to understand whether these pairings are as unusual as onlookers seem to think. Reflecting on his own experience he wonders: How do people balance the stresses of personal-care help with the thrill of romance? Is it possible that the very things that appear to be insurmountable obstacles to a successful relationship—the financial burdens, the physical differences, the added element of an especially uncertain future—could be the building blocks of an enviable level of intimacy and communication that other couples could only dream of?
We meet Shane Burcaw, a twenty-three-year-old writer, who offers a glimpse of his first forays into dating with a disability. There's Rachelle Friedman, the "paralyzed bride," as the media refers to her, and her husband, discussing the joys and challenges of a new marriage and a growing family. And Christina Crosby and her partner, Janet Jakobsen, reflect on how Crosby's disabling accident called for them to renegotiate their roles and expectations in their long-term relationship. What emerges is a candid glimpse into the challenges and joys of interabled love—from the first blush of sexual awakening to commitment and marriage and through to widowhood.
Related to In Sickness and in Health
Related audiobooks
Crazy Time: Surviving Divorce and Building a New Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love After 50: How to Find It, Enjoy It, and Keep It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Remarriage Blueprint: How Remarried Couples and Their Families Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vows: The Modern Genius of an Ancient Rite Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMen and Women: Enjoying the Difference Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moving Past Marriage: Why We Should Ditch Marital Privilege, End Relationship-Status Discrimination, and Embrace Non-marital History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInfidelity and Other Affairs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wife in the Next Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrace-Filled Stepparenting: Help and Hope for This Unique and Loving Role Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You're In My Office, It's Already Too Late: A Divorce Lawyer's Guide to Staying Together Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bitch is Back: Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Be Married (to Melissa): A Hilarious Guide to a Happier, One-of-a-Kind Marriage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman Next Door: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope Ain't a Hustle: Persevering by Faith in a Wearying World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Adulterer: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/59 Lies That Will Destroy Your Marriage: And the Truths That Will Save It and Set It Free Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is This The One?: Insightful Dates for Finding the Love of Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Redefining Normal: How Two Foster Kids Beat The Odds and Discovered Healing, Happiness and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gaggle: How the Guys You Know Will Help You Find the Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cutting Loose: Why Women Who End Their Marriages Do So Well Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Happy Wives Club: One Woman's Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn't Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ready or Knot?: 12 Conversations Every Couple Needs to Have before Marriage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Marriages Succeed or Fail: And How You Can Make Yours Last Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The July 11 Audiozine Issue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sex and the Married Girl: From Clicking to Climaxing - The Truth about Modern Marriage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for In Sickness and in Health
1 rating0 reviews