Falling for Myself : A Memoir

In this searing and seriously funny memoir, Dorothy Ellen Palmer falls down, a lot, and spends a lifetime learning to appreciate her disability. Born with two very different, very tiny feet, she was adopted as a toddler by an already wounded 1950s family. From childhood surgeries to decades as a feminist teacher, mom, improv coach and unionist, she tried to hide being different. But now, standing proud with her walker, she's sharing her journey. Navigating abandonment, abuse and ableism, she finds her birth parents and a new chosen family in the disability community. "In this searing and seriously funny memoir Dorothy Ellen Palmer falls down, a lot, and spends a lifetime learning to appreciate it. Born with congenital anomalies in both feet, then called birth defects, she was adopted as a toddler by a wounded 1950s family who had no idea how to handle the tangled complexities of adoption and disability. From repeated childhood surgeries to an activist awakening at university to decades as a feminist teacher, mom, improv coach and unionist, she tried to hide being different. But now, in this book, she's standing proud with her walker and sharing her journey. With savvy comic timing that spares no one, not even herself, Palmer takes on Tiny Tim, shoe shopping, adult diapers, childhood sexual abuse, finding her birth parents, ableism and ageism. In Falling for Myself, she reckons with her past and with everyone's future, and allows herself to fall and get up and fall again, knees bloody, but determined to seek Disability Justice, to insist we all be seen, heard, included and valued for who we are."-- Provided by publisher In this searing and seriously funny memoir, Dorothy Ellen Palmer falls down. A Lot. Born with congenital anomalies, then called birth defects, in both feet, she was adopted as a toddler by a traditional 1950s family that had no idea how to handle the interwoven complexities of adoption and disability. From repeated childhood surgeries to an activist awakening at university to decades as a feminist teacher, improv coach and unionist, she spent much of her life denying her disability. But now, in this book written with the timing of a comedian, shes sharing her journey. Palmer takes on adoption, ableism, ageism and childhood sexual abuse as she reckons with her past and with everyones future. In Falling for Myself , she allows herself to fall and get up and fall again, knees and hands bloody, but determined to seek disability justice, to insist we all be heard, seen, included and valued for who we are.