by Rachael Sage

June 2011 — “If another person says, ‘When life throws you lemons, make lemonade,’ I’m going to punch them!” Although the words were slurred through the lips of a petite, partially paralyzed woman, the conviction behind them was unmistakable.

For the past five years Shari Bookstaff, suffering from partial paralysis resulting from the removal of a brain tumor, has heard this phrase so repeatedly that she decided to write a book to counter it. Though this sunny cliché is meant to be supportive, it’s not what a vibrant, independent woman who needed to re-learn how to swallow, talk, walk and live wants to hear. There is no silver lining in some situations. Instead of falsely trying to make something positive out of a grim situation, Bookstaff chooses an alternative: When Life Throws You Lemons…Make Cranberry Juice!

Instead of pretending that there’s something positive about her situation, she chooses to keep her eyes peeled for the cranberries — those little, sweet treasures abundantly sprinkled throughout life. For Bookstaff, showering is a two-hour ordeal and walking from her parking spot to her office is grueling. However, she finds joy in things as minor as finding $20 hidden in the pocket of a jacket she hadn’t worn in a while, an unexpected phone call from a friend, or finding a handicapped parking space at the store. These are the things we often take for granted, but they are the very things Bookstaff looks forward to as she struggles out of bed each day.

Shari and her children, Abby, and Andy before her surgery. Photo courtesy of Shari Bookstaff.

It all started in April of 2006. For months Bookstaff had suffered from severe bouts of headaches, dizziness and nausea. Several doctors brushed the symptoms off until one finally called for an MRI. That was July 5, 2006. Eleven days later she was under a surgeon’s knife having a golf-ball-sized tumor removed from her brain stem. A “routine” surgery with a “speedy” recovery period was expected. It was anything but. Brookstaff hoped to be home in five days. She didn’t return home for nine months.

Medical records indicate Bookstaff may have had a stroke during the procedure. Two weeks after the surgery, she still wasn’t breathing on her own. It took a tracheotomy and a feeding tube to keep her alive. She had lost the hearing in her left ear, the sight in her left eye, mobility in the limbs on her left side, the strength to sit up, and the ability to talk. After she was able to breath with the tracheotomy, scores of speech, physical and occupational therapists descended upon her. She first learned one-syllable, then two-syllable words. She learned how to sit up, then move her legs, then crawl. She learned to swallow saliva, then pills, then food. After nine months of intensive therapy she was well enough to return home to her two teenage kids, her dogs and her once-simple life.

Today, almost five years after the surgery, Bookstaff has returned to her career as a professor at Skyline College. She runs a program in which students research rehab techniques for individuals who suffer from brain trauma, she’s a single mother to two teenagers, and she does speaking engagements around the Bay Area at which she shares her story. It is with humor, honesty and humility that Bookstaff wrote about her lemons and cranberries in When Life Throws You Lemons…Make Cranberry Juice! Her story is a touching and inspiring one of determination, which takes you from her pre-op days of 2006 to the challenges of the present. Her tale leaves you feeling thankful for all the cranberries that are so easily taken for granted.

When Life Throws You Lemons… Make Cranberry Juice! is available for purchase on the Web. To book a speaking engagement, write to Brookstaff at bookstaffs@smccd.edu.