Bob Woodruff was seriously injured on January 29, 2006 while reporting near Taji, Iraq. Here are quotes from Lee and Bob about his inspirational recovery and information about the book they wrote together about the experience of dealing with the crisis that hit their family and healing from his traumatic brain injury.
Quotes:
Bob: "When I awoke and saw her face, I loved her even more than before. I had not thought it possible."Source: In an Instant, page 282.
Bob when asked if his family bonds were tighter: "I would say so. Certainly my relationship with my children especially is very ... and I’m more in love with my wife than I even was before which I’m not sure that was really possible."
Source: Charles Gibson Interview
Lee's question that she asked Bob's neurosurgeon: "I just want to know, will he still love me?"
Source: Oprah Show, 2/27/07.
Lee when Bob awoke after nearly five weeks of being in a coma: "I walked in to his room, and I parted the curtains and Bob was sitting up in bed and he turned to me and he just said, 'Sweetie, where have you been?'"
Source: ABCnews.go.com
Bob when asked how he had changed internally, 2/27/07: "Well, I think I’ve got a lot more love for my family, my kids, no question about it."
Source: Charles Gibson Interview
Bob when asked what his lowest moment was during his recovery, 2/27/07: "I think waking up and the moment when I first saw my wife for all that time and seeing my children and realizing what I had done to my family. That I blamed my self for I put them through because I saw the kind of pain they went through all those days."
Source: Charles Gibson Interview
Lee about handling a crisis: "You can’t know how you would behave in a crisis until it drops out of the sky and knocks you down like a bandit: stealing your future, robbing you of your dreams, and mocking anything that resembles certainty. Sudden tragic events and even slow-burning disasters teach us more about ourselves than most of us care to know."
Source: In an Instant, Excerpt
Book About Their Marriage and Bob's Recovery:
In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing
by Lee Woodruff and Bob Woodruff
Read an Excerpt
"In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again–and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear. Here are Lee’s heartfelt memories of their courtship, their travels as Bob left a law practice behind and pursued his news career and Lee her freelance business, the glorious births of her children and the challenges of motherhood.Bob in turn recalls the moment he caught the journalism “bug” while covering Tiananmen Square for CBS News, his love of overseas assignments and his guilt about long separations from his family, and his pride at attaining the brass ring of television news–being chosen to fill the seat of the late Peter Jennings.
And, for the first time, the Woodruffs reveal the agonizing details of Bob’s terrible injuries and his remarkable recovery. We learn that Bob’s return home was not an end to the journey but the first step into a future they have learned not to fear but to be grateful for.
In an Instant is much more than the dual memoir of love and courage. It is an important, wise, and inspiring guide to coping with tragedy–and an extraordinary drama of marriage, family, war, and nation."
The Bob Woodruff Family Fund
The Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury was established by Bob and Lee Woodruff to assist military members who are suffering from brain injuries.
