Touched

Marin Morrison was supposed to be the girl nobody noticed in the hallway and the one nobody could catch in the pool. In February 2005, the shy freshman from Lawrenceville, Georgia, finished third in the state 100-yard freestyle two-tenths of a second behind the winner. She was one of the fastest sprinters in the South, a SwimAtlanta standout with national-level times, and colleges were already sending recruiting letters. Soon after, an MRI at Emory showed a large brain tumor in her left temporal lobe. Her father, Matt Morrison, a CNN sports broadcaster, started a CaringBridge page to keep friends informed, and the family's story moved from the pool deck to the hospital ward. Touched follows Marin and her family across the years that followed: second opinions and a trip to the Mayo Clinic, chemotherapy, a community of swimmers, neighbors, and strangers who rallied around her, and Marin's own determination to keep racing. That road led to the U.S. Paralympic swim team and the 2008 Games in Beijing. Told by her father and built around the journal entries and guestbook messages written in real time, the book is organized in twenty-two chapters named for water and for climbing, from "Of the Sea" to "Ascension." It is also candid about what a family goes through when a child is sick and after she is gone: the strain on a marriage, the pull of old habits, and a moment at the end that the author kept to himself for years. For parents of children with cancer, for swimmers and the families who follow them, and for anyone who has lost someone young, this is a father's tribute and a record of what a community can do for one girl.