The Green Room

On a fateful day in May of 1997, Mark Colburn, a Navy SEAL with the elite Leap Frog parachuting team, prepared to make the last jump of the day with his two team members. Mark jumped from a plane at 12,000 feet in the sky above Brown’s field in Otay Mesa, California. After free-falling to three-thousand feet, Mark opened his chute. But the SEAL above him did not and continued free-falling at ninety miles an hour. The other jumper tore through Mark’s chute, hitting him in the head and hand with his body. The impact sent Mark twirling unconscious through the air with few cells left on his chute, and he hit the ground, changing his life forever.

Suffering from broken bones and a severe brain injury, Mark’s amazing recovery became his biggest challenge. With incredible courage, humor, and enduring love of life and family, he continued to improve. His mother, author Liliane Colburn, tells his story of hope, despair, triumph, and the powerful bond between mother and son. But most of all, Liliane shares the strength and spirit that guides them both.