02462cam a2200313 i 4500 199059201 TxAuBib 20150109120000.0 130916s2014||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2013036717 9780393089011 hbk. 0393089010 hbk. TxAuBib rda Cronin, Mary Eileen. Mermaid [Book] : a memoir of resilience / Eileen Cronin. First edition. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2014. viii, 336 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Prologue -- Tracing the blue light -- Rosa's game -- Open spaces -- The hanger -- Digging to China -- Under this chair -- An education -- A communion -- Out of nowhere -- Passages -- The last worst thing that ever happened to me -- How to build an empire --Birth of Venus -- Changer of hearts -- When a pop diva comes in handy -- Venus rises (having gotten a lift from Dr. T.J. Eckleburg) -- Ancestral knowledge -- Swan song -- Taking the plunge -- The gravedigger's granddaughter -- One door slams, another opens -- Orphans and Ophelias -- Ophelia gets her feet wet -- Wings to fly -- Dancing with Andy. A woman born without legs describes her life growing up as one of eleven children in a large Catholic family, wearing prosthetics, going to school, facing bullies, and searching for love and happiness. Cronin, born without legs, describes her life growing up as one of eleven children in a large Catholic family, wearing prosthetics, going to school, facing bullies, and searching for love and happiness. She felt most comfortable and happiest relaxing and skinny dipping with her girlfriends, imagining herself "an elusive mermaid." As her mother battled mental illness, Cronin tried to get her to say whether she took thalidomide during her 1960 pregnancy. Eventually she found the strength to set out on her own, volunteering at hospitals, earning a PhD in clinical psychology, and developing her capacity to forgive and accept life as a journey of self-discovery and transformation. 20150109. Cronin, Mary Eileen. People with disabilities United States Biography. Women with disabilities United States Biography.