Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Alex: The Life of a Child
Alex: The Life of a Child
Alex: The Life of a Child
Ebook156 pages3 hours

Alex: The Life of a Child

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

A father’s moving memoir of cystic fibrosis “captures a brave child’s legacy as well as the continuing fight against the genetic disease” (The New York Times).

In 1971 a girl named Alex was born with cystic fibrosis, a degenerative genetic lung disease. Although health-care innovations have improved the life span of CF patients tremendously over the last four decades, the illness remains fatal.

Given only two years to live by her doctors, the imaginative, excitable, and curious little girl battled through painful and frustrating physical-therapy sessions twice daily, as well as regular hospitalizations, bringing joy to the lives of everyone she touched. Despite her setbacks, brave Alex was determined to live life like a typical girl—going to school, playing with her friends, traveling with her family. Ultimately, however, she succumbed to the disease in 1980 at the age of eight.

Award-winning author Frank Deford, celebrated primarily as a sportswriter, was also a budding novelist and biographer at the time of his daughter’s birth. Deford kept a journal of Alex’s courageous stand against the disease, documenting his family’s struggle to cope with and celebrate the daily fight she faced. This book is the result of that journal.

Alex relives the events of those eight years: moments as heartwarming as when Alex recorded herself saying “I love you” so her brother could listen to her whenever he wanted, and as heartrending as the young girl’s tragic, dawning realization of her own very tenuous mortality, and her parents’ difficulty in trying to explain why.

Though Alex is a sad story, it is also one of hope; her greatest wish was that someday a cure would be found. Deford has written a phenomenal memoir about an extraordinary little girl.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 24, 2015
ISBN9781504007337
Alex: The Life of a Child
Author

Frank Deford

Frank Deford (1938–2017) was an author, commentator, and senior contributor to Sports Illustrated. In addition, he was a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. He won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award for his broadcasting. Deford’s 1981 novel Everybody’s All-American was named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid. His memoir Alex: The Life of a Child, chronicling his daughter’s life and battle with cystic fibrosis, was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986.  In 2012 President Obama honored Deford with the National Humanities Medal for “transforming how we think about sports,” making Deford the first person primarily associated with sports to earn recognition from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was also awarded the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sportswriting, the W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award, and the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith Award, and was elected to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters of America Hall of Fame. GQ has called him, simply, “the world’s greatest sportswriter.”  

Read more from Frank Deford

Related to Alex

Related ebooks

Related articles

Reviews for Alex

Rating: 4.2155172413793105 out of 5 stars
4/5

58 ratings5 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I got this book when I was a child myself - and even then, the story of Alex drew me; I wanted to be Alex Deford's friend. In later years, re-reading the memoir of the struggle and pain and heart-lifting moments the Defords struggled through, I recall thinking that this young girl was one of those children that lead you to wonder about wise old souls in childrens' bodies. Be prepared - if your heart is not made of stone, you may want to invest in Club Pack boxes of tissues or a set of hankies. I went through three copies of this book - in no small part because between rereading it myself and lending it to friends, the pages became warped and slightly blurry because several of them were spattered with tears.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Outstanding, and one of my all time favorite books, even though I cannot get through it without bawling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I saw the movie when I was a child and it was one of my favorites even though it broke my heart every time I watched it. Perhaps because I'm older and a parent now, myself, reading this beautifully tragic book touched my heart even more than the movie did.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Tender and honest writing about something we, as a society, still don't know how to talk about----the death of a child.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I defy any person to read this book and not be affected. This is a love story of a beloved child who was born dying of a terminal illness and the father who desperately wanted her to live, but hated to see her in so much pain. The first time I read this, I was a teenager and realized that I was the same age Alex would be. Now, as a parent, this book touches me on so many levels.

Book preview

Alex - Frank Deford

[dbook_preview_excerpt.htmlZ۲䶑͎9a[:uY6~ItjOK6@a# .UYYYۯ_y#|z9nξIr_\?oBn\KZK.&>_~&_~lZ0xi.a֕2t\BלC)X=S&E\|p ȯ~~%7!ʎeɟssY70[ːgSvqjg^mF4싂 |V[$n<4؋w2,iۄ+8Q5k:@U*>EeoY soR.Ws{nG?(xM bp׀ ~qe(=yyN lz,8-`W"g;bJ$s'-C;vjZ0l;aRR22=j~z94eGtt;5aX;>ea46*vQO1>S !r䆘Ne(48eJ3& gLJPa'8~~XB aCb:8'ISSOBu>xtGf?{axq$Αs x xh^=\81T+r=p.IIxҍE1 GB 3<Ãn#ck3E~jkg,q2Nxh;'NS0ψabH}$dpWdC8{Fh_~nkٍT&,rxfVa>0V<53oiIhg`IKA 2*B' 1YvV |u~hYRZ N9t!"$ 8&*ymh=Wix oܒF+CЬ}E,,TnXW2rƑ[գt90Q_G0;0xWLMW ) %AD?rw'8z9{?6@X,]xuD}NHW]QyvYrp7Ǹ(g2" YCuґmyf/qSrt>p|nj|q( t3t2j=>A򘻥xvIwUb*cb/8#~?d7|C1Pт' ([8<7lz)`d='/5o7G{C"PMO?eucC[Ʊ-"PH ,˨-G|njc l)˶UNH͐?hLgD=|H{41YM2Q Ly[)} u&ҫVxRſ]ΡL͡;"Aucz<-qoFHW J-_uI@Ix s(gܨ㚏U'68O;; +I(BбmKJ8S"(3F&@Rg]tgPX:U=VK9ŞKBD[tBsӹwI-!NL$JA*Swm(Y>܀2|H d' Tu$e`\tN&Nb%-0e̢lL|Jzz T $S"($Mdd4T  .. aePfPTlXnS9c@W"i?]M֋xAFɤ5"OuC)/ RodZְ> +H+l>dj- EIVxX3=Z朇,& TS'Mhz QBZz$B ul}^ηR0J"UPT$ Gܔ +Qޥ]݆{-辚!8V-7:ϓx 0*q 9C3u+sŖ3qe c(\K~IKG]Xٱ'3ʦ" .RTW{]^BRIY2 k6NO'H(ךBҩ2M3'U6R̾[$ >V@Xӈ5»X-hn Zk|X;fa#6Q&--c5ԸNz+ fx4&>0W^k"hǗ Hlp"A@h)dz *p&:CW_)<3L1 dtjBN>k $$bQ\zÞ/i=5xOHlb`sZaZ64x Eo73?=G8 k ,AۋRmD v-ЭcZ:໒7>JˬtI[;Ut*+ę/͂(LU4yFXPd[߮=mg}79}g:A n;œc+VuZ [)>%H{t=/ve6l|jj(qG_$ u Qb",(r^(EچƭbnP0IO)k8 k?K1%D2-^.l6Nh wIGI'sFv0ҊKR 5H2M/r}v\P@o}ӌxgr'_vՕ⺭wZ^(*}/.t!%V*j! lWҗ= )uq_ԆlU uaAړ"͵9kazHx7N cC'U?~w3xHyg FHI'h1 wxnh8m} t ( !9Ӟ`X灩=v?ٕbWgE[tvWR.Jo$@’c-Zf7}]Ҕfv&'Jybϯ[u^6EϿc#Tk!>.fCXX[F.xuPX+tTTXeb~^tNmL4gM7x*"}6ʹMrkߎNfo1,?"lRv9Nc׎}=IqJS2%3 IBbZ&şI;9C0Sl]%q8y뗎r+K2WE ~oqK*xM`d'&б93y|Yt rCuIDa\l~=Hk70D#Ix&В W0iz_[r(ҙf=s:4YBژǘn揗T `¢m,r1o~$~^V+Y0ב`vrV>Ic˥گ$м1эFylK-Ґ78鵄+/Ѐcϕ|}ykHZvXtޞL.[d7s=Pcj'/uHj1^P#[}a(4veч PZf=͔'doomE&j0!p4#x;5 q"-]j,<4"YgkLQݥTc􊜓|̵-{ߔ'60 C8uUZIU&ȇpZVryhWԲݷĻ8Dp%݌Z(`j-dq .tBԗ蟂K;vjj|Μ^1 RWYءG؛o7ޞ aLLW _S/kB95H*' Y{.ERVLwAש{TLڀT ݝGԦ6ޡ@ͱFe K 1NW2h-)ZJ|.Qjv#f侻CHzgy[K~]mUջQO3swu 7$_%Zd %j(l ''w Madͪ֗.J y9kUS7 ;"%6rV6 !/TEE{dۊwg^KDKzS1)׭eh/ZsNAбAf1,Cɻ5aSE՜'%sz0AWT'dnjZyCb %#|k5royީT?{Vo6ŤS&,}u-˙SN;( 4vLQ1/f{1:>s1D.7rœ+Z~Ɂpd-
Enjoying the preview?