Still Here: And Still Choosing
How Stroke, Setbacks, and Heartbreak Built a Stronger Man
by Blake Murphy
On March 30, 2023, Blake Murphy died.
Not in the clinical sense, but in the way a life ends when a stroke tears it in half. One moment he was standing. The next, his body was shutting down, nurses yelling for him to stay awake as something cold and heavy pulled him under. His daughter April was the only tether keeping him from slipping away. When he woke up, the man he used to be was gone, and a long fight back to life had only just begun.
Still Here: And Still Choosing is the raw, unfiltered memoir of rebuilding after everything breaks. From childhood spent moving across California, to becoming a father at eighteen, to hustling through dead-end jobs while secretly building dreams at night, Blake’s life has never been simple. But nothing prepared him for the stroke that left him paralyzed on one side, trapped inside a body that no longer obeyed him.
What follows is not a polished story of “overcoming.” It is the truth. The nights in a Georgia basement learning how to walk again. The return to Bakersfield that ended in a TIA and another collapse. The heartbreak of losing relationships that couldn’t survive the weight of illness. The betrayal, the fear, the identity crisis, the quiet rage, and the spiritual unraveling.
But woven through every chapter is the same constant: April. The daughter he raised alone. The reason he fought when it was easier to drift into the dark. The reason he chose life, again and again.
This memoir is also a record of rebirth. Through neuroplasticity, biohacking, journaling, and the relentless curiosity that sparked his “quantum self” experiments, Blake refused to settle for the old version of recovery. He began designing his life from scratch. From rebuilding his body to embracing a nomadic, minimalist future, he committed to a new identity built not from survival, but sovereignty.
In these pages you will follow Blake through:
• A stroke that felt like slipping into another timeline
• The painful honesty of divorce, dating, and love after disability
• A daughter whose presence becomes a lifeline
• The battles with identity, memory, and a body that won’t cooperate
• The raw mechanics of rebuilding a broken nervous system
• The spiritual shift from “Why me?” to “What now?”
• The dream of a freer life lived on the road, by choice, not escape
Still Here is not a hero story. It’s a human story: a father fighting for a future he almost didn’t get to see, and a man learning that survival itself can be an act of creation.
If you’ve ever felt broken, lost, betrayed, or rebuilt from zero… this book is a reminder that you’re still one decision away from a different universe. The next chapter is yours to write.
Blake chose the one where he didn’t quit.
And he’s still choosing.
