Trailing, a memoir

Trailing, a memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe

Trailing is a beautifully written memoir of a "trailing spouse". Having grown up as a child of a diplomat, Kristin didn't forsee any issues with following her husband to East Africa as part of a medical team. She had grown up moving a lot, mostly overseas, and assumed that her life experience had prepared her...

The transition to life in Nairobi, as a trailing spouse with no career, was far from smooth. Kristin tries to fill her days, feel fulfilled, while being the spouse of an active medical doctor on the front lines of African distress. Kristin is starting to feel good when a car jacking turns her world upside down. With post-traumatic stress disorder, every day life becomes excruciatingly difficult. Simple travel in a taxi upends her day.

The memoir follows Kristin to Uganda, and ultimately to France, through multiple jobs. (Finding a way to utilize her social work education overseas was much more difficult than expected.) Her challenges of overcoming PTSD, raising a child, and ultimately dealing with complete betrayal take us through from depression to triumph.

Duncombe does a beautiful job of taking us into her innermost pain. It was a heartwarming story, that makes you cheer in her triumph and cry at her pain.