Bedtime Stories for the Living

"It is a unique experience to read a book that speaks directly to your heart.

If you live with a rare life altering disease, you spend a lot of time in your head. It's hard to put the thoughts into words. In Bedtime Stories for the Living, Jay Armstrong accurately articulates the thoughts of any person living with a rare disease or anyone simply struggling to overcome their challenges."

Kyle Bryant, spokesperson for the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance and host of the Two Disabled Dudes podcast.

A regular dad. A rare brain disease. A chance to live forever.

A cell phone's ring interrupts the silence as Jay Armstrong sits in his high school classroom preparing for the year ahead. Something about the ring makes his stomach drop. It's his doctor.

The words, "diffuse cerebellar atrophy, a rare, degenerative brain disease" float through the speaker. All of Jay's youthful dreams of being a writer rush back, flooding the twenty years he has spent teaching students how to appreciate novels, memoirs, and poetry. The care he put into teaching them how to write with clarity, insight, and humor, and how to dance at the prom. The bedtime stories he never told his children spin in his imagination. It will all die when he dies.

Bedtime Stories for the Living is an episodic memoir in which Jay shows his children how to accept their limitations and find joy. The collection of tender, witty stories about fatherhood, persevering despite illness, and pursuing your dreams, demonstrates how love gives us the strength to face heartache with bravery, humor, and grace.

Reviews:
"Jay Armstrong is a wonderful storyteller. I knew this the moment he joined me on my podcast. I'm thrilled to see that his storytelling translates to the page and his book is filled with stories. Jay shares stories of his challenges, his triumphs and his medical journey. I'm so glad he continues to share his stories."

Jesse Jackson, Host of the Set Lusting Bruce podcast

"Jay Armstrong's debut, Bedtime Stories for the Living, is part memoir, part confession, and a love letter for his children. Cataclysmic news - a hole in his brain, a rare and poorly understood condition, steady loss of motor skills and speech obstructing his desire to share in each activity with his young children - haunt each page, woven into the prism of sundry fleeting moments. Yet here, these earthy glimpses are charged with mystery, and the holiness of love. Jay's book is about the quandary of fear and suffering that face