Lee held their family together, providing the extra support her children needed, as well as providing moral and physical support to her husband during his slow recovery from near-death. She and Bob wrote a compelling account of their amazing journey in The New York Times bestseller, In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing.

Above and beyond their own incredible personal ordeal, they made the decision to help others, founding the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury “to raise money to assist members of the military with cognitive rehabilitation and other care needs following traumatic brain injury suffered in service to their country.”

In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “Suffering is not optional. It seems to be part and parcel of the human condition, but suffering can embitter or ennoble.” Lee Woodruff is a testament to strength and grace during difficult times, conveying a message of love and healing, of surviving a devastating crisis.