Our Journey: The Story of Brain Injury Hope Network

A question from a member the Hope Facebook family seemed simple enough. “What is the Brain Injury Hope Network?” She asked.

An innocent enough question – with an amazing back-story.

It was not long after my own brush with death, a brush that landed me in a local trauma center with broken bones, torn flesh and a traumatic brain injury, that I attended my first face-to-face brain injury support group.

My life has never been the same since.

I began attending a monthly brain injury support with others who shared the same fate. This has proven to be a game-changer. 

For ninety minutes a month, surrounded by others, for a short time, we are all “normal.” In that sacred space, no one cares about word-finding issues, we laugh heartily at our shared challenges, almost nothing is off-limits in terms of conversational topics and we savor each others company. Many of us have looked death squarely in the eye and are still here to talk about it.

C’mon, how can there not be a bit of a celebratory spirit?

And when a new member appears at our doorstep, as a group, we rally around the “Brain Injury Newbie” offering life-giving and life-changing support.

But there were those 29 days between our monthly meetings where the void was empty.

I’m a bit of a Goldilocks thinker. Sometimes I think too little, sometimes I think too much... but on occasion, I think just right.

I started what I initially envisioned to be a smaller Facebook family. Living with a brain injury has become the toughest part of my own life’s journey... as it has for millions of others.

It was my hope to create a safe place, a sacred spacel, where ALL affected by a brain injury could drop by, set a spell, perhaps read a few words of inspiration, comments on other members questions and concern... and be part of a new kind of virtual supportive family.

Over the years, something miraculous happened. We grew, grew, and grew some more. And we keep growing.

Today, our Facebook Family is one of the largest worldwide that supports those with brain injury.

Better still, the vision was realized as many of our members have opened shared that the “virtual contact” with others has made their own path easier. Shared before, I never saw this coming.

In 2015, TBI HOPE Magazine was launched as a free digital publication to help reach more who need to know that a meaningful life can be built after a brain injury. In early 2017, a print version of TBI HOPE Magazine was announced.

In 2018, the magazine and network became known as HOPE Magazine, mindul that stroke survivors, AVM and anoxic brain injury surivors needed to know that the Brain Injury Hope Network was an inclusive community, looking to serve all affected by brain injury. 

HOPE is a true family, a family of souls connected by what many may deem tragedy – who come together in the spirit of giving and unconditional love.

And now you know.

~David