I am a Runner: The Memoirs of a Sepsis Survivor by Maria Papalia-Meier & Pamela Ackerson Genre: Inspirational Memoir
“You’ll never be able to run again.” From running half marathons to being the sickest person in the hospital, Maria Papalia-Meier fought the river of death, and won. Life changing moments, amputations, and negative thoughts refused to keep her down. With her rock-hard stubbornness, positive self-empowerment and persistence, she grabbed hope and unflinching faith to face the life handed to her. Her story offers an honest, tough-love approach to defeating pre-determined opinions, and self-imposed limitations. She refused to give up or give in. Maria Papalia-Meier is a runner. She has awoken stronger…better. This is her story. **On Sale for only $2.99 until July 16th!!** Goodreads * Amazon
Maria Papalia-Meier is a fighter. She may have been KO’d, and down for the count, but she proved them wrong. I am a Runner is about surviving sepsis, a coma, and amputation. Maria has a BBA with an emphasis in Human Resources, and has worked for Fed-Ex for twenty years. As an athlete she has many accomplishments. Before her battle with the river of death she’d competed and ran in multiple 5K’s. She was told she’d never run again. She proved the naysayers wrong. Her athletic accomplishments include running in a 5K, and a 1/2 Marathon. Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Amazon
Wife, mother, author, and time traveling adventurer. Born and raised in Newport, RI where history is a way of life, Pamela Ackerson now lives on the Space Coast of Florida, a hop, skip, and jump from Orlando, where imagination and fantasy abounds. With the love of reading, she graduated to writing non-fiction, historical fiction, time travel, and children’s preschool/first reader books. Website * Facebook * Twitter * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads
I am a Runner, the Memoirs of a Sepsis Survivor
by Maria Papalia-Meier
What I have told, and will continue to tell people…Never give up. Willpower, from the mind
and heart, is the whole shebang. It’s what’s been and what will be.
I went from being the sickest person to running a half-marathon. I turned my back on the
Angel of Death. It wasn’t my time. I have fought the reaper, and fought the river of death. I
accepted the compelling and intimidating challenges that kept pummeling me in the face.
I merely punched back.
People are the most complex living beings in our world. I was one of those people who
always exaggerated how bad I felt.
Never again. I know and understand too much. Like an inexperienced boxer in the ring, I was
struck down and knocked out. But I wouldn’t let the beast keep me down. I refused to succumb
to my own wallowing tears of woe.
I was no longer the same person I was before my surgeries. I wasn’t about to obsess over the
negative. Reality was a kicker.
I was being realistic.
Toes don’t grow back.
I’ve accepted what has happened. I didn’t want to, but honestly, was there another option? I
came to terms with what I had to do, and had every intention of controlling what I could in my
life.
Here are the brutal facts:
I was in excruciating pain, with what seemed like never-ending twists of random setbacks.
The beast tried to break me, make me bend in places I never thought I’d go. I refused to die. I
wouldn’t give in to the weakness of surrender.
I was repulsed by my feebleness.
I shook my fist at my mortality.
I was angry.
I was terrified.
I was happy to be alive.
I was loved.
Because of all of those and many more, because of who I was, it only made me stronger. It
fastened and deepened the conviction of survival in my heart.
I almost lost my life. It would’ve been a pretty hefty price to pay for a neglected strep
infection.
Who knew such a minor thing could become so fatal?
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