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Pa ge 1 2 T hu rs da y, D ec em be r 1 8, 2 01 4 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a (3 Adamson Street) at the corner of Winston Churchill & Hwy 7, Norval 905-873-7955 "Because Your Home is Your Palace" www.carpetpalace.ca Hardwood • Engineered • Carpet • Laminate • Ceramic Cork • Bamboo • Vinyl • Area Rugs • Much More Wishing you a Very Happy Holiday Season Holiday hours: Christmas Eve - 10 am to 2 pm Christmas Day - closed • Boxing Day - 10 am to 6 pm AS GREAT TO GIVE AS THEY ARE TO RECEIVE Great Gifts Starting at $469 plus applicable taxes EACH At participating restaurants while quantities last. © Tim Hortons, 2014 A recently released book-- Mind the Gap-- by Jonathan (Jake) Mc- Murray chronicles the George- town man's tumultuous journey back from a devastating brain inju- ry that erased all of his memories. McMurray's life changed dra- matically on Aug. 28 1995 (he was 22) while heading back to Acadia University in Nova Scotia. He was ly- ing in the back seat of a car sleeping, with his girlfriend at the wheel and a friend in the front passenger seat, when a tire blew and the car flipped over. McMurray, who wasn't wear- ing a seatbelt, was ejected out of the rear window and landed on his head in the centre median of the Trans- Canada Highway. The driver was un- scathed and the passenger suffered minor injuries, said McMurray. Miraculously, McMurray survived the horrific accident, but he was left with a traumatic brain injury that caused him to forget his entire life-- the ability to walk, to remember words, numbers-- everyone and ev- erything. He was rushed to hospital in Quebec where he was in a coma for seven days. "I [woke] up spitting and babbling all the profanities I have learned over the past 22 years," wrote McMurray in his book. "My dictionary consists of eight to ten words. My vocabulary is crippled; the foul language is pretty much all that remains." He didn't know his parents or brothers. The only thing that was fa- miliar to him was music. He would recognize certain songs from his CD collection that his family would play for him in the hospital room. "Music was very important," said McMurray. "It was one of the only things that I remembered, and lyrics helped me rebuild my vocabulary. It also meant that I never got lonely be- cause music was always there." Songs would spark memories of the place where he first heard it. He said fortunately language came back to him pretty quickly, but his vocabu- lary was very limited. He was later transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Nova Scotia where he spent three months in occupational, speech and physiotherapy. "That's where I started over," he said. His rehabilitation continued for several months after he returned home as well. His family and friends shared their memories with him to remind him of his past and worked with him on memory exercises. McMurray's passion for music was intertwined throughout his jour- ney and helped to carry him through to a place where he could find peace in his new life-- in which he is mar- ried to Allison and a father of two boys, Jack and Quinn. He was able to complete his uni- versity degree and now works part- time at the Beer Store in Georgetown. "No memories prior to the ac- cident have ever returned, with the exception of music, which wasn't lost in the accident," said McMurray. "To- day, I have a poor, moderate working memory. I need notes to help me re- member things." In addition, as a result of the ac- cident, McMurray has visual agnosia, which affects his ability to recognize and identify people visually. He began working on the book in 1998 and for memories that were sto- len in the accident he has tried to rec- reate events, locales and conversa- tions from pictures, documents and the memories of his families, friends and others involved in his life. He attended a Writer's Workshop at Humber College to help with the writing process. He worked on the book on and off and after many re- jections from other publishers it was picked up by Three Dogs Press in 2012. He finished the book last year (2013). His book is available locally at White Rabbit Books (118 Mill St. Georgetown), The Williams Mill Visual Arts Cen- tre (515 Main St. Glen Williams). It is also available online at http://www.jonathanmc- murray.com and will be distributed to independent bookstores nationwide in the coming weeks. A donation of $1 for every book sold will be made to the Brain Injury Association of Canada. McMurray is now facing a new challenge in his life. He was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer, has had surgery and is undergoing che- motherapy. NEWS Local man turns to the written word to record lost memories By Lisa Tallyn ltallyn@theifp.ca JONATHAN 'JAKE' MCMURRAY 'I [woke] up spitting and babbling all the profani- ties I have learned over the past 22 years.'