Counting Bones: Anatomy of Love Lost and Found

by Ellen Anderson Penno

Overview

When she was twenty-four years old, Ellen Anderson Penno lost her partner in a climbing accident while they were ascending Mount Baker in Washington’s Cascade Range. The avalanche hid his body in a crevasse just weeks before Anderson Penno was slated to begin medical school, and she soon found herself torn between deferring her studies for a year, or starting right away with a full course load.

Rather than succumbing to grief and risk never beginning her medical education at all, she plunged deep into her studies, surrounded by death on all sides, struggling to maintain her way through her turbulent emotions and a rigorous med school schedule.

In this stirring and often mordantly funny new memoir, Ellen Anderson Penno structures a story of mourning, loss, despair and love through the lens of the classic medical text Gray’s Anatomy, showing readers what becomes of those who must rebuild their lives after tragedy strikes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774390924
Publisher:	NeWest Publishers, Limited
Publication date:	04/15/2024
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ellen Anderson Penno is a writer and full-time medical doctor, earning an MD and MS from the University of Minnesota, with rotating surgical internship at Hennepin County Hospital, Minneapolis, and ophthalmology residency at the Mayo Clinic. She has earned a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College and completed her Graduate Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She immigrated to Calgary, Alberta in 1997 where she continues to live with her adult daughters and dog pal Ed.

Read an Excerpt

PROLOGUE

PART I: THE SKELETON

the bones of the story

I: 1. The Ribs: the rib speaks of love and healing

I: 2. The Hand: thankful for touch and strength

I: 3. The Foot: step, rest, step, rest, repeat, repeat, repeat

PART II: THE BLOOD

a little blood goes a long way

II: 1. The Heart: breaking, bleeding, beating

II: 2. Surface Marking: evidence of buried truth

II: 3. The Cavity: falling through nothing

PART III: EMBRYOLOGY

origins of a finished product

III: 1. Rudiments: starting from scratch

III: 2. Chronological Tables: strict schedules wait for no one

III: 3. Maturation: "the child is the father of the man" - Wordsworth

PART IV: MUSCLES AND FASCIE

heavy lifting

IV: 1. Dissection: unburied truth

IV: 2. Deep Fascia: but for fascia we would crumble to bits

IV: 3. Actions: you can run (and run) but cannot hide

PART V: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

flight, flee, freeze, or frenzy

V: 1. The Hemispheres: which is smarter, head or heart?

V: 2. Cerebellum: balancing is easy until it's not

V: 3. The Sympathetic Nerve: put on your own oxygen mask before helping others

PART VI: ORGANS OF VOICE AND RESPIRATION

you cannot speak if you do not breathe

VI: 1. The Larynx: a finite number of words to speak?

VI: 2. False Vocal Cords: things are not always what they seem

VI: 3. True Vocal Cords: when you find truth, you find strength

PART VII: ORGANS OF SPECIAL SENSE

the eyes of the soul give the clearest vision

VII: 1. True Skin: it's what's underneath that counts

VII: 2. The Labyrinth: equilibrium is a superpower

VII: 3 The Eyes: the problem of hindsight

EPILOGUE

Reading Group Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

PART I: THE SKELETON

the bones of the story

I: 1. The Ribs: the rib speaks of love and healing

I: 2. The Hand: thankful for touch and strength

I: 3. The Foot: step, rest, step, rest, repeat, repeat, repeat

PART II: THE BLOOD

a little blood goes a long way

II: 1. The Heart: breaking, bleeding, beating

II: 2. Surface Marking: evidence of buried truth

II: 3. The Cavity: falling through nothing

PART III: EMBRYOLOGY

origins of a finished product

III: 1. Rudiments: starting from scratch

III: 2. Chronological Tables: strict schedules wait for no one

III: 3. Maturation: “the child is the father of the man” - Wordsworth

PART IV: MUSCLES AND FASCIE

heavy lifting

IV: 1. Dissection: unburied truth

IV: 2. Deep Fascia: but for fascia we would crumble to bits

IV: 3. Actions: you can run (and run) but cannot hide

PART V: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

flight, flee, freeze, or frenzy

V: 1. The Hemispheres: which is smarter, head or heart?

V: 2. Cerebellum: balancing is easy until it’s not

V: 3. The Sympathetic Nerve: put on your own oxygen mask before helping others

PART VI: ORGANS OF VOICE AND RESPIRATION

you cannot speak if you do not breathe

VI: 1. The Larynx: a finite number of words to speak?

VI: 2. False Vocal Cords: things are not always what they seem

VI: 3. True Vocal Cords: when you find truth, you find strength

PART VII: ORGANS OF SPECIAL SENSE

the eyes of the soul give the clearest vision

VII: 1. True Skin: it’s what’s underneath that counts

VII: 2. The Labyrinth: equilibrium is a superpower

VII: 3 The Eyes: the problem of hindsight

EPILOGUE

Editorial Reviews

”Counting Bones is a book about grief told not obliquely, but head-on. With truth steady at her side and earth-anchored clarity, Anderson Penno masters the fine line between self-pity and self-glorification as she traces grief's path: the initial strike of near annihilating power, then its expansion to permeate all aspects of one's life before it begins to slowly, not lessen, but to shapeshift, transforming both itself and the writer. But Counting Bones is also a good story, a coming-of-age chronicle that will hold its readers as they marvel over the courage and resilience of an indefatigable, multi-gifted young woman.” —Sharon Butala, award winning author of Leaving Wisdom and Where I Live Now

“Counting Bones begins as a tale of a college romance rich with hiking, mountain climbing, skiing and the special sensation that comes from finding a soulmate for the first time but shifts into a complex tale of grief as a life-long visitor. The author loses her beloved to an avalanche on Mt. Baker in Washington just as she’s finishing college and starting medical school. Her memoir reads like a symphony—an “Ode to Grief” instead of joy, but just as nuanced and beautiful. “Ian and Ian’s death are like two different people,” she reflects, as the reader follows her through her complex reaction to the sudden trauma even as she faces the medical training required to handle trauma in others. If you loved Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking, buy this book.” —Mary Collins, author of At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces (Beacon Press)

“Ellen Anderson Penno’s memoir is an anatomy of precision and procedural beauty. Counting Bones takes the reader on a sure and steady climb, unexpected descent into loss, and through an ill-timed academic crucible. Anderson Penno pairs the rhythm and language of rock climbing with the nomenclative framework of Gray’s Anatomy. In an introspective writing style that juxtaposes the creative with memoir Anderson Penno manages, in unexpected moments, to belay time, depart from the quantitative, and bring to light poetic concerns of the broken hearted.” —Darcy Tamayose, award-winning author of Ezra’s Ghosts

“A piercing and original read that enfolds the reader with touches of humour and pathos ... [i]n her first book, Penno shows that revisiting memories of a lost love can be more intimately rewarding than one might ever imagine.” — Elaine Morin, Alberta Views

“Penno’s memory of details is extraordinary.” — Harriet Zaidman, Winnipeg Free Press

“Penno authentically delivers emotion as she tells the story, and she is also often funny, and is able to analyze her self critically. She wrote Counting Bones many years after the accident, and that perspective of distance may be what allows her to craft the tale with such grace.” — Malahat Review

From the Publisher