Pathways is a sensitive portrayal of six families and their coping when stroke and aphasia suddenly intrude upon their lives. Through the stages of hospilization, coming home, and re-establishing routines, the authors go beyond the typical first person narratives to chronicle the feelings and reactions of not only the stroke survivors, but their spouses and children. Each family's "pathway" winds to a future beyond the stroke, to plans that encompass hopes and dreams.
Pathways describes aphasia in lay terms, examines the changes in listening, reading, writing, and speech, and details methods to compensate the losses. In addition, Beth Pfalzgraf writes about her reactions to her father's brain hemorrhage and subsequent surgery—an event that occurred as she was preparing this book. She shares her own responses as a health care professional living through the recovery stages with her father.