Not everyone shares their thoughts about us in a testimonial or interview. Some are so moved by their private autobiography journey that they immortalize the experience within their own life story—writing about it in the very book we helped them create. Their words, woven into their memoirs, stand as the truest testament to the impact of preserving a life’s journey in a beautifully crafted book.
The words that follow are an abridged extract from Peter Barfoot’s LifeBook, Farmin’ … The Barfoots Story. They lay bare the impact that writing his autobiography had on him after he suffered a near-fatal fall in a game of polo. His horse lost its footing, and what should have been a minor accident resulted in severe brain trauma. Airlifted to the hospital, he was given just a 10 percent chance of survival. In a coma, he was transferred to a specialist unit, where his long and challenging recovery began.
Fifteen weeks later, Peter was discharged but faced significant struggles—he had difficulty speaking, swallowing, and performing basic cognitive functions. His wife, Angela, sought a way to stimulate his mind. She turned to LifeBook Memoirs, giving Peter a structured-yet-manageable project. Through regular interviews, his life story was recorded. Initially exhausting, the process became a source of motivation and, as his strength returned, so did his enthusiasm. Peter credits his LifeBook project as a key factor in his rehabilitation, calling it “the biggest factor in my recovery.”
Here is what he had to say:
For my 66th birthday gift, Angela gave me an introduction to LifeBook Memoirs, the brainchild of Roy Moëd. I accepted the gift with gratitude, stuck it in a drawer, and got on with my very selfish existence, not giving it another thought. Not a month further on, I was in a coma in the neurological critical care unit at Brighton’s Royal Sussex Hospital, having suffered a massive subarachnoid hemorrhage, and I was not expected to live much longer.
Fast forward three months, and I was not only alive but on my way home. Angela, meanwhile, had enlisted the help of a specialist neurological rehabilitation company. Their job? To get me back on the road ASAP.
The team included a neuro-physiotherapist, speech and language therapist, occupational health therapist, and psychologist. I had a paralyzed throat and had to learn to speak and swallow again. My sense of balance was not too good either, and I had to teach myself once more the cognitive skills we take for granted.
It wasn’t long before my LifeBook present came out from the drawer. Alicia Denny, my interviewer, turned up, and away we went. It was not at all easy to begin with. My writing was not good, as it sloped downhill and was very spidery. I would speak into a recorder, but my voice would tire and I pronounced the words with difficulty, then I would have a coughing attack. Nevertheless, Alicia would bear with me, dragging out the memories. Because of my difficulties, I would dread her coming, and the timetable slackened off.
Fortunately, she persisted with me, and the book gradually gathered momentum and a life of its own. I recruited a genealogist, Jeanette, whose research added a new dimension, and Angela became my proofreader and secretary.Writing this book, I believe, has possibly been the biggest factor in my rehabilitation. It got my brain going again. Sometimes, after a big session of writing, my brain felt like scrambled egg for the whole of the following day, but my LifeBook joined the history of the past with the present and, hopefully, the future.
Peter’s LifeBook, Farmin’ … The Barfoots Story, was completed in 2018.
