An Interview with Marie Buckner from Booktoots' Healing
To listen to the full interview click on the PLAY button above. Below are excerpts from the interview.






My Background (Marie Buckner)






My name is Marie Buckner. I'm originally from the Detroit, Michigan area.
In my early days my great grandfather was a diabetic. He eventually became a paraplegic. He was in a wheelchair. It was wonderful to be able to help him out during some difficult days. One of the ways that he returned the favor and helped us all out was by playing his harmonica. As a little kid I would sit on the floor and listen to him as he played. And that's when my interest in music started. I saw how people's faces would light up and they always had stories to share and it was nice to know that I could help elevate someone's mood by playing music.






So my desire to help others started at a young age.
My Professional Education
I have an advanced degree in business administration specializing in accounting and minoring in psychology. And I worked in corporate America for about 40 years. I passed the CPA exam. And I used to own a natural foods business where I authored cookbooks, had a newsletter, and also did cooking classes. I develop recipes and I write articles on food because I believe 100% in holistic healing.






My Healthy Approach to Life
I don't take any medications now; that's kind of unique. Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm going to be 65 and I'm not on any medications. I'm very proud of that. And I exercise regularly. I've always placed an importance on exercise.













The Origination of 'Booktoots'






In 1975 I was in a car accident where I fractured my femur. That led to arthritis in the knee. I was in a body cast for two years. I had a lot of people ask me to write a book about this experience. So I figured, well I'll start writing a book about that. That’s the “book.” And then the “toots” actually comes from the fact that I'm a huge Three Stooges fan. In their shows when they're around ‘high class women’, they always call “Hey Toots, how you doing?” Book meets Toots and voilá! Booktoots













It was a pretty bad accident. I had a closed head injury and there was subdermal hematoma, now called a brain bleed. Because my head hit the dash and went through the window, there was nerve palsy and a damaged nerve in my left eye which is double vision. I still have that.






And then I fractured my jaw and that requires surgery. I fractured my c1 vertebra, which is the cervical vertebra, which to this day I have shortness of breath every day, but I learned to live with it.
And there was more
And then there were three ribs on my right side, which punctured my kidney and caused internal bleeding. And then there was the fractured femur and that wasn't healing properly. So what they had to do was to take a bone graft from my hip, put that on a steel rod and then implanted that to my femur. I was in a body cast after that was done. And when the femur wasn't healing properly, that's when they did surgery to put the steel rod in.






I was out and about after that whole fiasco and then I fell on some ice and broke my femur again. So the second fracture happened above where the steel rod was located. I had to go back into the hospital. They did the surgery, took out the steel rod,