On May 12, 2015, Geralyn Ritter, Senior Vice President at pharmaceutical company Merck, was flung from her train car in Amtrak’s deadliest train derailment since 1987. Of 238 passengers, over 200 people were injured and eight were tragically killed. Geralyn was the most critically injured of those who survived.

It took just seconds for Geralyn to go from being a senior executive at one of America’s largest companies to an immobilized ICU patient facing an uncertain future. Despite intense pain, years of recovery, and a continuing struggle with trauma, Geralyn came to view her situation as an act of grace – an undeserved, unmerited gift – that empowered her to rebuild her body and re-establish her career, “bone by bone.”

We invited Geralyn Ritter, now Executive Vice President of External Affairs, ESG, and Sustainability at Organon, a new women’s health organization and spinoff from Merck, to talk about her recovery and return to work through the lens of gratitude, grief, resilience, and, of course, purpose.