Writing as therapy

Dr. Clint Pearson examines the ear of patient Corrina Blakely during his rounds at the Del Norte Community Wellness Center. (The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson)

While Clint Pearson was a medical school student, he felt compelled to begin recording his life in writing.

“A lot of my motivation was to document what I was going through with multiple sclerosis,” Clint said. “The writing kind of developed a life of its own.”

Twenty years and many drafts later, Dr. Pearson and his wife, Ursula Pearson, have published “Falling,” a memoir of their experiences together.

The Pearsons came to Del Norte County in 2001, when Clint took a position with United Indian Health Services in Smith River. Later, he moved over to Del Norte Community Health Services, where he is a family practice physician and an infectious diseases specialist. Never far from his side, Ursula makes it possible for the wheelchair-bound doctor to keep up a busy schedule.

This Saturday and next Friday, the couple will be hosting book launch parties in Crescent City for “Falling.”

“Part Outdoor Adventure, Part Medical Drama, Part Love Story … All Human” reads the subtitle on the cover. That’s putting it mildly. “Falling” tells many stories from Clint and Ursula’s lives with humor, grace and powerful honesty.

There’s the story of a passionate, reckless young high school track star, Clint, who loved to blaze trails and climb remote peaks in the Sierras. He had already been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a nerve disease that tends to gradually take away people’s ability to control their own muscles until walking becomes difficult and falling is all too common.

But aside from the occasional attack of suddenly blurred vision, young Clint rarely noticed any evidence of his illness, and it was the brash, athletic outdoorsman that Ursula met, fell in love with and married long before she would ever have to learn how to lift his body with her small frame.

Ursula and Clint Pearson discuss ‘Falling’ on Wednesday at Del Norte Community Wellness Center. (The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson)

The book tells about Ursula’s upbringing as a South African of Indian descent whose family endured indignities and outrages under Apartheid. A reserved woman with a strong sense of propriety, young Ursula was proof of the attractive power of opposites.

“Falling” is also a story of some of Clint’s most memorable patients, including several from Del Norte County, and the experiences he and Ursula shared in trying, not always successfully, to save their lives.

“What’s important is that the story is not just about me, but about the patients and what they’ve gone through, so people can relate,” Clint said during a recent interview with The Triplicate. “Everybody has a decline. Even if you don’t have MS or a health problem.”

Eventually, Clint lost the ability to climb mountains, something he had to find out the hard way with characteristic stubbornness.

“In writing, I was surprised to find that I’m really good at lying to myself. And when I started to write it down, there was less denial that I was in decline and falling down and I couldn’t get to the top of the mountain. I think if I hadn’t written it, I wouldn’t be nearly as open as I am now.”

BOOK PARTIES

The Pearsons will be hosting a book launch party from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Del Norte Community Wellness Center, 550 E. Washington Blvd.

Another book launch party will be held at 6 p.m. next Friday at Del Norte County Library, 190 Price Mall.

“Falling” by Clint and Ursula Pearson is available locally from The Bookcomber and online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.