Tree Barking: A Memoir

Nesta Rovina

Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-59714-081-2, $14.95
208 pages (5.5 x 8.5)

A BayTree Book

“Working in home health…is somewhat like looking at snapshots of a person’s life.”

As a home health therapist, Nesta Rovina has seen and heard it all: a stroke victim who learned to roll off her bed at night to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of rival gangs and drug dealers; a man who lived off grass and bugs for a week while fleeing his native Laos; a sixteen-year-old gunshot victim who was left for dead by a man targeting prostitutes; a heroin addict who—when her left hand was amputated after becoming infected from frequent injections—began “popping” on her right hand.

In telling their stories, Rovina’s own story begins to emerge: her upbringing in South Africa, her family tragedy in Israel, her decision to become a health-care worker. Confronting America’s bruised and battered health-care system, she shows compassion and understanding for all her housebound clients who—no matter their circumstances—carry on with faith, humor, and kindness.

Reviews:

“Not many home health-care therapists have written about their experiences—fewer still with such care, reflection, and skill. Highly recommended for general library collections.”—Library Journal

Excerpt:

"I looked at the diagnosis for the fifth time. Tree Barking. The nurse who had referred me was not in the office this morning when I received the referral. I wondered whether she had made a mistake when writing the diagnosis. She had been stressed, but such an error? Surely not. What on earth was Tree Barking? As usual, I had no time to check reference books before leaving the office. I would have to find out later, after work. I find out many things about my patients after work, in medical dictionaries, reference books, obituary columns. I also find out about future patients, usually in a paragraph tucked somewhere on the back page of a newspaper. For example: ‘two people involved in a driveby shooting in North Richmond, one was killed, the other, a sixteen-year-old boy, was flown to John Muir hospital.’ I knew that when that boy was released, he would be referred to us." Read more at www.nestarovina.com...

About the Author:

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nesta Rovina received a degree from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She lived in Israel for eleven years, eight of them in Kibbutz Ein Dor. She received her degree in occupational therapy in Jerusalem and has lived and worked in the Bay Area since 1980. She has an MA from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda and has had essays published locally and in England.

Author website: www.nestarovina.com