Published: November 20, 2005 11:00 pm         

Former Enid resident's 1st book covers his bipolar disease struggles

By Robert Barron Staff Writer



A former Enid resident Gerry Bradley has written a book about overcoming great odds and gives those who read his book courage to do the same.

"Birds from the Thicket" is Bradley's first book and it covers his life and talks about his struggle to overcome bipolar disease.

"It's not just for those who suffer from the disease, but for all those who are on the periphery and who are dealing with it," he said by telephone Sunday.

Now a resident of Seattle, Bradley started the book seven years ago realizing it was a passion God had given him.

"As Christians we realize we all have a message He wants us to use to get to people and to help them," he said. "That's what being a Christian is all about, helping people."

Bradley said people thank him every day for writing the book. While the book is not on the best seller list people purchase it from Authorhouse.com or Amazon.com and send them all over the nation. The book also can be ordered through Hastings or any book store.

When he was writing the book he took segments of if to a newspaper in the Queen Anne section of Seattle where he grew up and it was published.

Bradley's upheaval came during high school. Bipolar disease was unknown at the time and he moved to different high schools, finally graduating from high school in California.

The disease finally was "discovered" shortly before he was diagnosed with it.

Bradley also deals with his own considerations of suicide while battling the disease, which takes its victims from extreme highs to extreme lows.

He began writing the book as a psychological exercise. When his parents died 14 days apart in 1984 he began grieving while still dealing with bipolar disorder.

A psychologist told him to write letters to his parents and those letters began the books.

The title comes from an English sparrow he encountered while on a 347-mile bike trip across California to Vandenberg, Air Force Base.

"I met that English sparrow along the way and I have carried it in my heart and soul ever since," he said. "Birds are those wonderful people in your life and my life who sing a wonderful song for us."

He recalled three instances that stick out in his mind. One was his mother snuggling him against her and reading stories from Colliers and Saturday Evening Post magazine because the authors were from Enid. Another was when as a high school student, and a non-reader he had to write a book review for English class.

He looked in the library and finally found "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway and wrote his review on it.

The teacher was impressed and told his class they had a budding American author in their midst.

The third incident was writing a tribute to Alan Hancock, founder of the junior college he attended. He interviewed the man's wife and wrote the piece.

"As a person of faith I think God has been preparing me for this all my life," he said.