I'm Still Standing

You might not want to get too close to Kelly Standing. The 51-year-old has been hit by a car, struck by lightning, survived a serious illness and narrowly avoided being the victim of a mass murderer.

When I first heard about her amazing brushes with life and death, I knew she was someone worth talking to.

As the parent of four daughters, I was touched when Ms. Standing told me of how, when daughter was just three years old, she was admitted to the hospital and told she had 48 hours to live. “I wanted my daughter to know about me, herself, the characters in our family and most importantly how to handle things that she would experience as she got older,” says Ms. Standing. She surpassed doctor’s expectations after discovering she had a disease that had been mistreated. “My letter to my daughter was nine single spaced pages, which I saved.” She pulled her journal out on her 10th anniversary of survival and read the letter with her daughter. “All of the things I was trying to tell her about pretty much happened. These pages are sacred to my daughter and I.”

Ms. Standing is a working mom, but she says she found balance by working evening hours in her home as a publicist and managing play dates and volunteering at school by day. “My mom was a working mom and I remember knowing that when I became a mother I wanted to be more present,” she says. Through all of her adventures, Ms. Standing has maintained a positive attitude and lived to write her autobiography, I'm Still Standing: How One Woman's Brushes with Death Taught Her How to Live. She also runs her own company, Standing Media, LLC., for which she travels the country for speaking engagements and book signings.

“More than anything, I wrote this book hoping to help people. If readers already have a great life, my stories can make them feel even better and help them consider what’s left on their Bucket Lists,” notes Ms. Standing. “If, on the other hand, readers face adversity, they know I can relate. They’re not alone. I grew up with an unconventional but truly liberating philosophy, instilled by my parents, sometimes misapplied by me but later refined: Everything is wired for good. Find the good. Look for the good. And...if you don’t get what you want, find a way to love what you get anyway.”

Ms. Standing is proud to see her grown daughter Libby walk down the aisle at her wedding in October.

Tagged as: Kelly Standing, book review, media, children and public speaking

Christine Garcia is founder and president of Plan It PR, a public relations and marketing firm. She dishes tips and survival stories in “Play Dates and Power Lunches.” Ms. Garcia started working public relations after a long career in broadcast journalism, which included work as a television anchor, reporter and producer.