Laurel C. Fox can be described as many things: voice-over and stage actress, singer, substitute teacher, go-getter, mother and now, author and advocate. Her new book, “Braveing the Way,” is a profoundly intimate piece of nonfiction that tells the story of her daughter’s traumatic brain injury. Taylor was hit by a car at the age of 14, forever altering the course of her life.
While her daughter was hospitalized in intensive care, Fox kept an online journal through CaringBridge, a nonprofit based in Minnesota that allows people with medical conditions and their families to communicate. Fox and her daughter’s father each took 48-hour shifts to keep constant vigil over her. Many excerpts from the journal ended up in “Braveing the Way,” as Fox cited the entries as one of her most significant sources of comfort.
“I found writing to be my biggest comfort,” she stated. “It was very cathartic, and it was my way of reaching out to people when I had no one. I put many of the [entries] in the book, and I was reflecting on those a lot. It was a huge thing for me when I started writing an actual book.”
A book signing at The Painted Pig with Fox and Robert McDermott, MD on Sept. 6, drew a solid and empathetic crowd.
“[It] was beautiful and incredible. There were wonderful questions, just people genuinely wondering how Taylor is, how my life is, and things like that,” Fox reflected.
Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fox has been a Roaring Fork local since she was 9 years old. After her parents divorced, she moved to Snowmass Village, where she lived with her mother and siblings in their family vacation home and attended Aspen schools. After graduation, Fox pursued higher education in the art world and eventually ended up in Los Angeles working for “Sweet Caroline” singer-songwriter Neil Diamond as his personal assistant for 13 years. She also did voice-over acting work for big brands like Nintendo.
Fox also worked as a personal assistant for clients other than Diamond and was with one in Beverly Hills when she got the call from one of her daughter’s teachers that would change her life forever.
She recalled, “At approximately 1:30pm, I get a phone call, and I missed the call, and I remember thinking, ‘What was that? They’re calling back? That’s weird.’ It was a teacher at the school telling me my daughter was just hit by a car. I immediately sunk into the floor like quicksand. I didn’t know what to think, except that I knew that it was bad.”
In the book, she describes this day in vivid detail, along with alternating questions and fears that came up as she arrived at the hospital to see her daughter in the state she was in.
“I immediately fell into myself like, ‘How am I going to do this? How am I going to get her through this recovery? I’ve never done this before. I’ve never been an advocate. I’ve never been in an ICU.’” In the book, that’s where Fox’s journey began, realizing she’d be advocating every day for her daughter.
The retelling of this traumatic time in her life touches on many themes, specifically bravery, resilience and finding strength within oneself, even when things are scary and uncertain. These themes are best be summarized in the book’s introduction:
“I could not turn the clock back and get a do-over of ‘that day.’ I had to take what was happening and use everything inside me to catapult forward. To me, at that moment, there was no option other than to deal with what was happening, make it part of my life, and fight like hell.”
“Braveing the Way” is available for purchase now on Amazon.