Steven McDonald Story

In 1986, McDonald, a young New York City police officer whose wife was three months pregnant, was shot by a teenager in Central Park and paralyzed from the neck down. Here the McDonalds--aided by Boston magazine senior editor Kahn, and calling upon various ``witnesses,'' ranging from nurses to Mayor Koch--offer a poignant chronicle of their lives before, during and especially after the tragedy. Both husband and wife are people of strong religious convictions; this strength has done much to sustain them, as has the outpouring of affection from the clergy, fellow policemen and the public. McDonald cannot breathe without a respirator and has a special wheelchair controlled by his mouth; although he has worked manfully on rehabilitation, there seems little likelihood that his condition will ever improve. But both McDonalds are secure in their faith that eventually they will triumph. These pages demonstrate they have already done. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate; excerpt to Reader's Digest. (July)