In an Instant by Lee and Bob Woodruff-Kristen Field

In an Instant is about a man named Bob Woodruff who is a news anchor for ABC News. He met his wife in college. He was studying to be a lawyer. He was much younger than his future wife Lee, and never even bothered to think twice about her. Quite a few years after college, Bob, by mere coincidence, net Lee at a restaurant, and from there, they started seeing each other. The summer after the coincidental meeting, Bob was offered a job in Beijing, China to teach English. He was torn between taking the job, and staying back with Lee. About two months before he went to China, he went on a vacation to Peru with a few of his friends. Lee stayed back at home, a little disappointed because she was sure he was going to propose to her before he left for Peru. However, when Lee went to pick Bob up from the airport after his Peru trip, he got on one knee in the middle of the airport, and asked her to marry him. Lee of course accepted the offer, had a "quickie wedding", as they called it, and later traveled to China with him and they lived there for a year. When they returned to the United States, Bob was having second thoughts about becoming a lawyer. He halfway considered working in journalism back when he was still in college, and decided to check it out once more, just for kicks. it turns out that ABC News was offering a position, and Bob quickly took it. He did not start out as a news anchor of course, but slowly worked his way up to being anchor. Along with going all over the country to report the news, Bob was also required to travel outside of America. Since the war in the Middle East between Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States was just starting to culminate, Iraq was one of the places Bob would travel to quite often. Bob would often go to Iraq just to report the latest news on what was going on overseas. He would go to Iraq, and never come home with a bump or a bruise. However, one time, he almost did not make it home. He was riding with a group of Iraqi and American soldiers who were working together to preserve the security of Iraq. They all rode on a tank together. Bob and his crew of sound technicians, camera-man, and other assistants. Bob, being the risk taker that he always had been, decided that he wanted to get some film from on top of the tank while it was moving. He was told that it probably was not a good idea since the noise from the tank would be so loud that the camera would not be able to hear anything but the noise from the tank. Bob decided that he would try it anyway, and at least get some footage without him narrating. So he and his camera man went above the tank with the other Iraqi soldier. Suddenly, in the middle of the tape, a huge explosion went off throwing Bob, his camera man, and the other Iraqi soldier off of the tank. The other ABC News employees were down below in the tank and remained uninjured. Bob had gotten numerous large and countless smaller shrapnel lodged into the left side of his back and head. He was seriously injured, along with the other two men. They all wore protective clothing, but it did not do justice in this case. The tank was much to close to the roadside bomb to protect them. Bob and the other men were rushed to a make-shift hospital at an army base. They were in extremely rough condition, and doctors were thinking that Bob especially would not make it. Their families were contacted immediately. Lee Woodruff was in Orlando with their four young children on a family vacation (minus Bob). Bob was flown as safely but quickly as possible to a hospital in Germany where he could get better medical care. Lee went with few family members to Germany to see Bob. When she saw him for the first time after his accident, she was absolutely horrified. She cold not believe her eyes. To her, and everyone else, it looked like Bob should not even be breathing. He was unconscious at the time, and non responsive. The doctors in Germany however, believed that he would survive the injury with little brain damage. They did say that it would probably take years if he was able to fully recover. Bob would undergo countless surgeries before he was able to regain consciousness, and even more to begin the reconstruction of his back, neck and head. Miraculously, Bob's eyesight was unchanged because the shrapnel missed his eye by the smallest measurement. Bob's brain was also unaffected by the luckiest coincidence. His brain was untouched by the shrapnel as well. Lee and Bob would credit their faith in God for this miracle. It was indeed years before Bob was back to his normal physical health, and today he still has little side effects from his incredible disaster.
There was a lot of symbolism in this book, that was mostly displayed by Lee. When she first found out about her husbands incident in Iraq, she kept saying that her "general" came out. Obviously a general didn't literally come out of her, but to her, she needed to get organized, stay firm, strong, and take control before she lost it in front of her kids. She started making plans for her to fly home from Orlando, plans for people to watch the kids, plans for her to fly to Germany to see her bed-ridden husband, and many more small seemingly insignificant plans. She took control fast, and like it was something she was used to doing since the day she was born. Just like that of a general. Another symbol that was given by Lee was that she would always make a reference to putting her "face" on. To most women, this means that they are going into the bathroom to put makeup on. But to Lee, this meant that she needed to put on a strong, and happy face for both Bob, and for the rest of the world. There were news cameras all over the place in Germany and throughout the whole process of Bob recovering from his disaster that tried to interview Lee, Bob, and their whole family, and even neighborhood, that would inquire about an interview. Sometimes they would accept, but usually not. However, when they would accept, Lee would often speak with a confident tone to remind others that she believed that Bob would be just fine. She also admits to doing this for the betterment of her four young children, and for her own sanity. A symbol that both Lee and Bob share throughout the story is their love and devotion to one another. They believed that when those two things mixed together would be the best recipe for Bob's healing. They figured this out before Bob had even regained the ability to communicate. The trait that they shared symbolized the amount of love that they had for each other meant that they should always be together. This journey of love and devotion between the couple essentially made their marriage stronger, despite the weaknesses they both had to suffer.