Please Stay by Greg Payan

Please Stay: A Brain Bleed, A Life In The Balance, A Love Story by Greg Payan tells the story of the random and almost fatal brain aneurysm suffered by the author’s wife, Holly, a 39-year old college professor, showing life’s fragility, but also its potential for great strength.

The book is touching and engrossing, and much more than a memoir of an illness. Constructed through actual email correspondence, the reader is unaware just what might happen next, offering a harrowing but compelling account of this tragic experience. Woven together with Greg’s own heartfelt recounting of that time in his life, letters from students, as well as pictures, the book tells a timeless story of a devotion among family and friends. The story becomes less about one couple than a universal story of endurance and love, which is at once tragic and inspiring.

The writing is deceptively simple, but wholly effective in demonstrating the ripples that reverberate from an event such as this. The ups and downs, the vulnerability, and the hope that endures throughout are all revealed sincerely and eloquently. Please Stay is a powerful message of love in the face of tragedy and how in times of hardship, people can rally around each other to reveal a deeper humanity.

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