Divine Aphasia: A Woman's Search for Her Father

Divine Aphasia's poignant story is tragic and often dark, yet hope permeates the struggles of the author, Nancy Owen Nelson, as the background in her childhood exposes her vulnerability to men and life. The story reflects a loving but delicate father, Woodford Owen Nelson, a military officer, who passes these same qualities to the author. As an adult, the author labors through multiple marriages and relationships in a difficult search for identity blurred by the experiences of the constant moves of her father from one Army base to another. These experiences, along with his alcoholism, ultimately result in the codependencies of Nelson, her mother, and sisters as well as stiff barriers to stability.

Only in her final unsuccessful marriage to a colleague with Aphasia does the process reach a breaking point that shatters these barriers and leads Nelson to understand, as she writes, that "he could not give me any more love than he did. That he gave love in ways I didn't recognize."