Alex: The Life of a Child
By Frank Deford
4/5
()
About this ebook
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.
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
The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bliss, Remembered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Strides on the Banked Track: The Life and Times of the Roller Derby Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'd Know That Voice Anywhere: My Favorite NPR Commentaries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Big Bill Tilden: The Triumphs and the Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Entitled: A Tale of Modern Baseball Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best of Frank Deford: I'm Just Getting Started... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spy in the Deuce Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Alex
Related ebooks
Karen: A True Story Told by Her Mother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hearts of a Girl: The Journey Through Congenital Heart Disease & Heart Transplant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Mother's Nightmare: A Heartrending Journey into Near Fatal Childhood Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Sippy Cup of Chemo: A Family's Journey Through Childhood Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Nobody Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Rain Hurts: An Adoptive Mother's Journey with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Running With Ghosts: A Memoir of Surviving Childhood Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bev Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dear Millie: Diary of a seven year old with cancer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Knew You Were There: A Stolen Child's Search for Her Irish Mother Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGirls of Tender Age: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raising Ryland: Our Story of Parenting a Transgender Child with No Strings Attached Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three More Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saving My Sister: How I Created Meaning from Addiction and Loss Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Will Not Leave You Comfortless: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Children's Blizzard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Growing Up Fast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Will Always Carry On: How I Beat Cancer Against All Odds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pregnancy Project: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Day Closer: A Mother's Quest to Bring Her Kidnapped Daughter Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saving Sycamore: The School Shooting That Never Happened Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTerrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boy Born Dead: A Story of Friendship, Courage, and Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loving Gia To Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDani's Story: A Journey from Neglect to Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Always Liza to Me: A Memoir for My Silent Sister Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ride: BMX Glory, Against All the Odds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWith Love from Karen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Alex
58 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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 stars5/5Outstanding, and one of my all time favorite books, even though I cannot get through it without bawling.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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 stars5/5Tender 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 stars5/5I 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.