this is my book it’s uh called

Unthinkable

um

I wrote this book because of my own

personal experience first I had been a

lawyer I graduated from Law School in

1992 I went to work at a personal injury

Law Firm the Monday after law school

it’s all I’ve ever done when you do this

work

just like you might imagine in the back

of your mind you know you uh you kind of

hope and pray that you never are on the

other side of one of those knocks on the

door are calls to say that a loved one

of yours has been hurt or killed when

you do this job you kind of get to

experience the randomness within which

this actually occurs and so you

recognize it can happen to any family

you just hope it’s never yours and I was

lucky for the first 27 years of my

practice that it never happened to my

family but unfortunately on April the

28th of 2020 my own mom was killed and

she was killed in a horrific way she was

run over by a concrete mixer truck while

walking across a crosswalk with a walk

sign

um and um and we lost my mom and we have

a very close family we’re very close to

my mom and she had nine grandchildren

and

um you know I of course here I was a

personal injury lawyer I I should know

and have all of the answers and my

family leaned on me heavily as they

should have thank goodness I had my law

partner who immediately went to work to

try to get some answers as to what

happened out there and it was invaluable

uh in our investigation of my mom’s

death but I really recognized through

this process uh

how holistic the needs are for families

who are going through this kind of event

and my sister you know frankly my sister

who’s a doctor she’s a smart woman you

know she asked me some questions very

straightforward questions so Kyle the

guy who killed mom like he’s a

commercial driver he’s not going to go

to jail for a long time right

and you’d be you’re not going to like

the answer to that question because if

it’s negligence they probably aren’t

going to jail uh for a long time if at

all my sister said you know I was up at

night I I’m just trying to find out more

information about uh what’s going to

happen to us and and to mom’s stuff and

I got to tell you Kyle all I see when I

start typing this stuff into Google is

uh some ad pops up that says hey

congratulations I’m a lawyer uh you know

somebody’s been killed call me and I’ll

get you get you a whole bunch of money

and that caused me to kind of do my own

Google searches and look and and you

know what she was right and I went on

Amazon and I tried to find resources

that might help my family understand and

when you’re going through this I can

tell you that you literally are trying

to make it through the next minute of

the day the next hour and hopefully you

get to the point where you’re just

trying to make it to the next day of the

day

um and you’re searching for answers and

if you’re like me and you want to fix

things like I’m a fixer give me a

problem and I’ll figure out how to fix

it and we’ll everything’s going to be

okay well what do you do when something

happens to your family like

it can’t be fixed there’s no it cannot

be fixed my mom is gone forever because

of somebody else’s conduct so

um

through this process uh and and as and

through the healing of of of this loss

that I went through uh I really

recognize you know what I’m in a very

unique position to help families not

only have I done this for my entire

career but I now have gone through as an

experienced the worst possible thing

that could happen to a family is having

somebody that you love killed in a

traumatic and terrible way and so I set

out to and as a legacy to my mother who

we all called big by the way she

was the oldest sister in her family and

her little sister’s called her big

and when it came time to what are you

going to call Grandma’s big so we

all knew everybody I called their mom

but we called her big when big

was killed

um in honor and as a legacy to her I set

out to write this kind of guide for

families that are confronting you know

catastrophic injury or death and it

really is starts with kind of goes in

chronological order with you know what

the police are going to be doing what

the outcome of that is likely to be what

they’re going to be considering how long

that process is likely to take how can

you protect your own family and secure

the evidence you know when and in what

circumstances you might want to get an

autopsy what’s going to happen to the

body how do you get keepsakes work all

the way through on death cases you know

all the way through to your rights as a

victim

what role you play in the criminal

justice system you know what happens if

somebody dies without a will

what if they have a will what if they

have property who gets the pets I mean I

just everything that that my family

experienced and I just took all of the

years of knowledge of questions that

people have come to me with over the

last three decades and I condensed it

into kind of a manual a kind of a walk

with you so to speak survival manual for

people confronting wrongful death and

the same thing for catastrophic injuries

you know what to do with that what

questions to ask the doctors how to

request a family meeting what happens at

those meetings what are your rights

under the Americans with Disabilities

Act what are your rights under the Fair

Housing Act what are your rights you

know just what are your rights in in

your employment under the America under

um your state employment law and then I

put uh also included uh appendices that

have all the victims right statutes for

all 50 states the wrongful death

statutes for all 50 states the probate

statutes and appendices so kind of this

this guidebook and I told the publisher

when I was writing it my goal is if it

helps one family

um

through this process then it’ll be a

success and it’ll be you know I think

when somebody’s killed or like it

happened to my mom you try to find

some way to make good out of bad you see

it happen all the time and and it’s just

this movement this movement within you

to try to not have your your lost your

lost loved one be forgotten or have it

you know occur with no no sense or no

purpose whatsoever uh to those who are

left behind and so that’s what caused

this uh to be created I had no idea that

it was going to be the Amazon bestseller

that it has been

um you know Forbes Magazine uh I picked

it up and put it last summer on it’s uh

wanted you know like they have a life

hack books if you want information

about something that could happen and

how you would approach it and it really

I’ve had people read it and write to me

and say gosh this made me go ride a will

or get a trust because they didn’t they

learned things about what would happen

if something happened to them or how to

make sure that they’ve made Provisions

for what would happen to their pets or

just various things people have reached

out with such gracious emails and

contacts to me kirkus reviews did a

review of it which you know other than

the New York Times it’s probably the

most known review for books and gave it

excellent reviews and so and and then I

I give it for free to

um victims Advocates throughout the

country uh you know I’ve given more than

10 000 of these books away to victims

Advocates around the country

um as a legacy uh you know to my mom

because those people are coming in

contact with victims on a regular basis

and and uh whether it’s military victims

Advocates or

um you know every uh State uh police

department of any size or DA’s office

has victims advocates in them and so

it’s been I think a great resource I’m

real proud of of uh you know I wish I I

wish I had never uh had to write it I

wish I’d never thought of writing it

frankly I would because I would my mom

would still be here you know I didn’t

write it for all those years and uh and

I say right on the back of it you know I

hope I’d start right here this is a book

I hope you never have to read but if you

do I hope it provides you with the

answers you need uh to the very

difficult questions that begin to swirl

around you and so that’s what the book

is about