by Chris Mercogliano (Author)
In My Brother's Words is the intimate and poignant autobiography of a profoundly disabled
woman who struggled to grow up in the 1950s. Because Susan could neither speak nor write,
her Irish twin tells her story for her in her voice, every bit as she would have told it herself.
Susan's was a life filled with triumphs and tragedies and everything in between. She wrestled
with and overcame her unique blend of physical and emotional childhood obstacles. She was
gainfully employed for 40 years. And she lived to become a celebrated elder in a
multigenerational family who misses her dearly today.
Susan's story is also the complicated story of disability in America and the efforts of advocates
for the disabled to push back against our inability and sometimes unwillingness as a society to
adequately address the needs of its most vulnerable members. That struggle is ongoing.