A Three Dog Life

A Three Dog Life is a memoir by Abigail Thomas, which chronicles the after math of her husband’s accident. One fateful night while walking their dog, a car hits Rich as the dog escapes from his leash. Rich suffers a traumatic brain injury that leaves him with no short-term memory, hallucinations and rages. Thomas must learn to cope with a husband who is never really there and rebuild her to these new circumstances.

Man, I really like sad memoirs. Just like The Year of Magical Thinking, this book is about a woman who suffers a great tragedy and recounts the years following the event. Unlike Didion, whose husband died, Thomas’s husband has no memory of yesterday and can only function in the here and now. As she states,
“I miss my husband. I miss the company of living with this man I loved
and trusted absolutely … Walking down our street I missed him by my side.
The past gets swallowed up in the extraordinary circumstances of now.
But mostly it hurts too much to let my mind go back.”
He may be physically alive and present, but he isn’t always functional at times scared and confused to where he is or what happened to him.

This book is a really quick read and while very emotional isn’t as gut wrenching to me as Didion’s was. Thomas has become accepting of her life and the terrible accident with Rich. She declares, “Rich is necessary to my happiness; I love the person he is now, I love who I am when I’m with him, and I can sometimes hold these two truths in my head at once: I wish he were whole, and I love my life.” It is liberating to read those words. It makes me hopeful. It opens doors to a whole realm of different possibilities in life. I didn’t feel sad after reading this book, more inspired.