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| Whatever It Takes by Barbara E Ashcroft |
I originally read and reviewed this book for Disabled World
“Solutions Discovered” is what I love most about this consequential book. I get excited when someone lives a life, takes notice of it, reflects and considers, and then is willing to invest their time and do the work of crafting their observations carefully in order to share with an audience.
This is what the author of Whatever It Takes has done for us. Barbara E. Ashcroft was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis at the age of twenty-nine. During the writing of the book, she had been living with the degenerative disease for thirty-five years. “My name is Barbara and I like to do things for myself,” is how she introduces herself to us. Due to multiple sclerosis, however, doing things for herself becomes a challenge. A challenge she chooses to overcome by doing – and inventing - things for herself, with the help of a few fantastic others.
Using photos, videos, humor and insight she takes us through the evolution of her solutions, the evolution of her changing challenges, the evolution of herself, and even the evolution of her Golden Retriever family members. Sometimes a Golden Retriever rather than an ailment is the reason a solution must be modified. Barbara and her family create solutions meant to help her do things as much for herself as she can. Sometimes they would create a solution that made independence easier for her, but the dog would take advantage and the next thing you know they need a solution to the solution! So, Barbara figures it out and creates something ideal for both her and her canine. I mention this because I think it is a wonderful inclusion in the book. That her solutions are focused on enhancing life, for herself and the loved ones in it.
The focus on independence over fashion is another delightful aspect of this book. Making something functional, creating something that aides in living a more independent life or aides in helping her helpers struggle less, is what matters in these pages. It’s such an important and beautiful idea! Not only for someone with a chronic disease like Multiple Sclerosis, but for most of us who live ever-evolving lives. Because Barbara’s disability is consistently on the moving, moving the goal post regarding what is and isn’t a working solution, Barbara’s solutions must also change. Hence, it is a wonderful thing to see each modification as temporary. There is no reason not to be fashionable, not to create art out of the solutions, but there is also no need to insist on it. The fashion, the beauty, the art is in the creativity and functionality.
One of the pleasures for me was that the author does not merely present finished working solutions. She often shows us some of the steps along the way, explaining the thought process, explaining why one solution did not work for her but may work for someone else, and in this way she encourages our own solution-making potential to pay attention. She also reminds us not to focus too much on “success” but, rather, on the entire process.
And she is not unwilling to simply purchase a solution if it already exists. In her words, “Why try to make something when there’s a great product available at a reasonable cost?”
Our world is built for the most common among us. Meaning many are less in need of solutions, but also meaning many of us are not often called to notice the things we use in the course of our daily living.
The author has us noticing so much! It feels like she is looking through the photos and videos with us, pointing things out, regaling us with backstory, laughing and commenting while inviting us into her home, her condition, and her experiences.
Indeed, it is the way she shares her experiences with the reader that I will most remember and carry with me. Her focus on listening and helping, her love of independence, and the fact that she lives in a body that requires her to need help, gather in such a way that her stories are of a woman who cares, who wants to see where she can be of service, who ventures out, and who has a disability that makes it necessary for her seek assistance. The author is in a unique position to share a valuable perspective and she does so with a fabulous attitude and assertiveness.
The solutions in this book, along with instructions, photos, and videos, are guaranteed to help readers as they adopt some ideas and adapt others. However, it is the friendship offered via the author’s narration that I will remember most. It is her friendship, I think, that will most guide readers as they seek their own solutions. It is her attitude, I think, that will especially encourage readers as they strive to do whatever it takes.
Visit: Whatever It Takes: Solutions Discovered during my 35 years of living with MS
The book is one I would like to see being read and shared widely!
