About Dawn Colclasure

Want to know more about me? You have come to the right page.

I survived a vehicular accident that left me unconscious under a burning vehicle when I was 22 months old. This resulted in third-degree burns on the left side of my face, my left arm, my left side and the left side of my head. Some burns were also on my back but they gradually faded. The fire damaged my left ear so it was replaced with an "ear" fashioned out of cartilage. Two very brave firefighters saved my life that day. Ever since then firefighters have had a special place in my heart. 

When I was 13, I contracted spinal meningitis from a sickly man who answered his door during a family trick-or-treating outing. The meningitis left me with moderate hearing loss. I lost the rest of my hearing as the years passed until I was profoundly deaf. I used to wear a hearing aid in my one good ear, but due to a severe inner ear infection that made it too painful to wear a hearing aid, I stopped wearing one and decided not to wear anymore hearing aids. Due to the injury to my left hand from the accident, resulting in three toe fingers implanted on that hand, my use of American Sign Language (ASL) is limited. I mostly sign with one hand. I use fingerspelling, lipreading, and written or text communication to communicate with others in person.

At the age of 43, after decades of struggling with alcoholism, I finally became sober on October 12, 2017. I have remained sober to this day. 

When I was 46, I was diagnosed with prinzmetal angina. This is the "heart condition" which I often mention in my public posts. It is controlled by medication, dietary choices and lifestyle adjustments.

At the age of 51, I was diagnosed with stage 3 glaucoma in my right eye. My vision in this eye is distorted, forcing me to rely on seeing everything with my one good left eye. 

It was while I was going through one of the many reconstructive surgeries in a hospital in Southern California that a nurse encouraged me to write. I was 11 years old at this time. It was as though a switch was flipped on. I started writing poetry in a journal this nurse gave to me. I eventually started telling stories, then writing all those stories down. Those stories turned into much longer stories that I realized were the length of novels. I wrote many of those in high school. When I wanted to start writing articles as a teen, I wasn't too sure if I could do it, so I started writing a whole bunch of practice articles I styled after everything I read in newspapers and magazines. Satisfied I could actually write an article, I started freelancing during my first year of college. Ever since then, I have been writing a variety of materials.

I am happily married to Jason and I am the mother of Centauri and Jax Wilson. When I am not writing, I enjoy reading, baking, watching movies and learning art. 

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