Jeffrey Morse on 'Finding Forward'

Jeffrey Morse joins us from Mooresville, North Carolina, where he discusses his memoir, Finding Forward: You Have the Will Within. Morse, who had built successful careers in both the military and commercial aviation, awoke one day to find he had suffered from a brain aneurysm and a dissected artery. When asked why he wanted to write this book, Morse said, “When I woke up paralyzed from my life-saving surgery, I found that I was paralyzed and, paralyzed from the neck down, and then I initially sat there in shock but then another part of me kicked in and I started thinking to myself, ‘wow, there’s no instruction book for what I’m supposed to do now that I’m paralyzed. What’s first, what’s second, what’s third?'”

During the conversation, he discussed the immense claustrophobia that comes with being paralyzed, journaling his progress throughout his nine-year recovery, and the lingering effects of his paralysis now. In order to push through recovery, he said, “I needed two words to never enter my brain, and those two words were ‘I can’t.’ So I wasn’t going to let that in either.”

His words of advice for those who have gone through a similar situation – “Your life is still worth something. You do have things to offer. Keep going with what you’re doing, no matter where it takes you. Stay positive with what you’re doing, and if you ever have the opportunity to help somebody, do so.” Additionally, “always take time to thank your caregivers and thank your therapists. It’s not an easy job for them to do what they’re doing and they do it for the love of the job and helping somebody else. You know, take time as often as you can and stop and look them in the eyes, and just stop everything going on, and thank them sincerely for everything that they do for you.”