Two Small Footprints in Wet Sand, by Anne-Dauphine Julliand

This sweet story touched my heart.  The author takes the reader on a journey through the small but profound life of her daughter who has been diagnosed with metachromatic leukodystrophy.  It drastically shortens her life.  But she uses the phrase, "Adding life to her days when we can't add days to her life".  And that's exactly what they did.  They tried to live every moment to the fullest.  Not by doing big things on any bucket list, but by just enjoying each and every moment.  They had a wonderful angel helper who set the greatest example of this:

     "She's amazed that we always seem to be chasing our tails, complaining when we have to be patient and cursing long lines.  Therese never feels she's wasting her time. whatever she does, she gives it her full attention.  And she feels that every moment of her life has value...
     "It's a well-known fact that in hospitals you often have to wait... and for a long time.  I'm soon muttering, getting irritable, and pacing up and down.  Therese, on the other hand, sees this time spent in the hospital as an opportunity to meet interesting people, experience a new environment, and slow the frantic pace of her everyday life.  For her, waiting isn't empty time; it's a state in its own right and can itself be a source of riches.  Therese doesn't put her life on hold when she has to wait around, she carries on living, just at a different pace."

I find it brave when someone shares their story.  I would imagine it's healing.  I'm very glad to have read this and added it to my mental library.  I loved reading about the many who stepped in to help take care of her little family when they were in such desperate need.  It made me happy to see how loved they were.  She tells how her little boy (the oldest) was so brave and older than his years.  She tells how her husband stayed by her side and how they fought the fight, together.  She tells of her newest daughter who also has the disease (it's a mix of bad genes, she says, from both her and her husband).  I did find out through the magic of the internet that her other little daughter died last year.  She had received a bone marrow transplant in hopes of at the very least lengthening her life.  I don't know her story or how long she lived but I can't imagine facing that with not one but two of my children.  She knew when she was pregnant that there was a significant chance her baby would have the disease and they chose to have the baby, anyway.  No regrets.  I admire them for that. 

This was a great story.  I highly recommend reading it. 

The Noel Diary, by Richard Paul Evans

My turn came up for the newest RPE book... I started it last night at about 8pm - and finished it this morning at 1:30am.  It was good.  haha

He said in his emails leading up to the release of this book (if I remember, correctly) that this story has more of his personal life experience than any of his other books.  It's his wife's new favorite of his.  So, naturally, I had to read it.  I just didn't plan on reading it in one night.  haha

Like his others, it was very well-written.  I think that's why they're such quick reads - they just flow.  He certainly has a way with words.  The more books of his I read (I've read them all... except his science fiction series - which are still written well, I just don't dig that sort of storyline.  I read the first one, which I loved.  But mostly through the second one, I decided it just wasn't my thing.), the more I feel like I can see a lot of who he is through his writing.  I wonder how much of his stories come from real life experiences and people he's met.  He kind of hints at things like that in some of his recent books I've read.  It's almost like he's sneaking in small confessions or something.  haha

This is a story about a boy-turned-man, still hurting and trying to heal the pain of his childhood.  He finds someone along his journey who is attempting the same thing, only to find their lives are more intertwined than they knew upon meeting.  Of course, there's the love story - not too sappy.  They never are.  I love that about his books.  Clean and nice - not too much gush.  And there are always additions to the story that make them not sticky sweet.  I like that.  These things could happen in real life... One can hope, anyway.

I would highly recommend this book, too.  I recommend all of his books.  He has a flair for the written word.  I'm certainly glad he didn't hide his talent under a bush and instead shared it with the world.  He's my fave.

About Alice, by Calvin Trillin

I love books that are written by real people telling their real stories.  This book was a short biography of sorts written by a grieving husband about his late wife, Alice.

He touches on the details of her personality, things he cherished about her... things, I'm sure, every wife wishes her husband would notice (and love) about her.  :)  He quite obviously loved every bit of her, from her outer beauty to her inner stubbornness.  She was a hopeless (or hopeful?) optimistic, a wonderful mother, a well-rounded, talented person with a desire and ability to touch the lives of others.  Alice was diagnosed with lung cancer in her early years, only to be given a 25 year grace period to see her daughters both married.  She had a sweet and realistic outlook on life and was able to always see the best in things.  She was never shy about expressing her opinion, no matter the number of feathers it might ruffle.  Her husband painted a nice little picture of her; a small glimpse, I'm sure.  I have to wonder if this was part of his grieving process... Either way, it was just nice to read about a small portion of this woman the world is now without.  She died from cardiac arrest, her heart being damaged by the radiation treatment she received.  But she died happy, seemingly satisfied with the life she'd lived.  I'm sure her family and friends feel equally blessed to have had her apart of theirs.

Have a Little Faith, by Mitch Albom

The other book I've been working on isn't a sit-down-and-read-till-yer-done-book, so I decided to squeeze in another one for fun.  :)

Mitch Albom is one of the best authors I have ever read.  I've read two of his other books, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and "Tuesdays With Morrie".  I loved "Tuesdays With Morrie".  Mr. Albom really knows how to portray a person's personality through his way with words.

This book held true to his form.  I consider myself to be a fairly religious person, but this book gives a whole new light on the subject on what being religious really means.  This book was compiled over a span of eight years, after Mitch's rabbi approaches him with the question, "Will you do my eulogy?".  Mitch felt in order to be able to do this, he had to get to know the man.  In the process, his reader has that blessed opportunity, as well.  I truly wish I could have known "the Reb" in real life.

One of the things Mitch does in his free time is to help people through his charities.  To do this, he investigates the place he wants to help to make sure they're legit.  This is how he meets Henry, the other character that graces us through the pages of this wonderful book.  Henry had a rough life, mostly due to his own choices, but turns it all around to become the pastor of his own congregation.

Through his visits with these two men, he learns more about himself than he ever thought he would.  He learns what it means to know there's something or someone bigger than him in the universe.

And he takes his reader right along with him on this magnificent journey, one I will truly cherish being able to go on. 

I highly recommend reading this book, as well as his others.  This book is one I'm hoping someday to purchase, as I only buy books I'll read more than once.  There was so much wisdom packed into those pages, I can't help but want to revisit them over and over again.  :)

The Walk, by Richard Paul Evans

I read this in 3.5 hours yesterday.  Well, last night, rather.  It was excellent.  (RPE usually is.)

This book is the story about a man, Alan Christoffersen, who has the career of his dreams, the perfect house, expensive cars, and best of all, the love of his life.  Things couldn't be better.  Then the worst happens and he manages to lose it all within a short amount of time.  On the verge of suicide, he hears a voice that tells him that life is not his to take, and he remembers a promise he made to his wife right before she dies to live.  So, he sells everything he can and starts a journey.  He walks, bringing only what he can carry on his back.  Along his path so far, he meets several people who change the way he sees life, people who were put in his path for a reason.  Angry with God, he tries to find it in himself to make sense of what happened.  His journey started in Seattle, Washington and will take him to Key West, Florida.  This is the first of five in a series, so naturally, it just ends, leaving a person hanging... till next April!! I learned a lot from this book, it was truly inspiring and thought provoking.  I love how one of the messages it teaches is that life is full of trials, it's what we do with those trials that defines who we are.  Richard Paul Evans must be a well of wisdom, that's all I can say.  :)

I read this in one evening, if that tells you how good it was, and I'm sure to read it again before the next one comes out.  I would seriously recommend it.  If you've never read RPE, it's worth your time (and money, if you choose to buy it - I would!) (Oh, wait, I already did!). And if you have read RPE before, this book is true to form and will keep you an RPE fan for life, I'm sure.

Hannah's Gift, by Maria Housden

Maria Housden tells the story of the short but profound life of her daughter, Hannah, who dies at the age of three after battling cancer for about a year.  She tells of her daughter's sweet example of faith and the happiness that can come from the simple things in life.  Her daughter's brief but significant time on this earth touched the lives of so many and continued to touch lives after her death.  She talks of her grief and of coming to terms with it.  She talks about the struggles in her marriage, of her thoughts on ending her own life, of the affect it had on her son, her beliefs as a Christian and the questioning of those beliefs.  She talks of her struggles with miscarriages and her role as a mother and all the imperfections and insecurities that come with one of the most challenging paths a woman can take.  In the end, she's able to accept life for what it is, do what she can with what she has and knows, and realizes her potential as a person.

This book, along with the other book on losing a loved one I've read, was foreign to me.  I've only lost one grandparent my whole life.  I, too, have had a miscarriage, but my own religious beliefs were a great comfort to me during both of these losses.  Maria questions a lot of things that I feel I have the answers too.  I don't know how I'd react to my own child's death after watching her (or him) suffer for a year.  This little girl was amazing.  She's said to have only been barely three when she dies, yet she talks like she's much older.  She (I believe) must've had a strong connection with "the other side", as she knew she was going to die, but knew she was going to live with God and was actually excited about that.  Knowing what I know, I have to wonder if I would have the same struggles with grief as this woman did.  I would hope not, but then again, I'm only human.  (And Heaven forbid I should ever find out first hand!) I have to admit, though, I was really growing tired of hearing about her daughter and how she was reminded of her in everything and wanted her to be a part of her "new life".  I wanted to say, "Get over it already."  But, having never been through that, I know that my ignorance of the matter is what is fueling those words, so please don't be offended if you've suffered a loss and know what she's going through.  I don't and hope to never know. 

This book and the last book I read talked a lot of breaking out of one's shell, embracing the unknown - about the world and about oneself.  They both talk of daring to break free of the stereotype we, as women, are expected to fulfill.  I found this author from an article I read online about mothers who willingly turn custody of their children over to their ex's after a divorce.  Her next book I'm going to start today is about that journey.  I'm anxious to see her point of view on the matter, as I'm very old fashioned in that I strongly believe the mother should be at home with her kids as God intended it to be.  Though, I can't help but read these things and wonder, "What if...?".

I've been finding quotes in a few of these books that I like to make a note of, quotes that might as well be coming from me.  Here are some from this book:

"Truth is fierce and unrelenting.... When we are willing to do the best we can with what we know, to be honest with ourselves and others about who we are and what really matters to us, only then are the lives we live and the love we receive truly our own."

"There was a part of me, I realized, that was overly critical of everything, that wanted to teach people, especially my children, about the "right" way to do things."

"I longed to bring the same attention to the busy-ness in my every day, to do something simply for the joy of doing it, without worrying whether people noticed or liked it."

"If I was serious about living life more fully, I was going to have to let go of my need for everything, including myself and others, to be perfect."

"I also knew that I had to start living my life.... I no longer felt willing for life to continue on without me."

This was a very good book, a quick read, and something that I think those who have lost a loved one would love to relate to.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

The word that comes to my mind when I think of describing this book is "raw".

Joan Didion in no way romanticizes the loss of a loved one and the grieving process that one goes through following their death.  "You sit down to dinner..." is a phrase she often repeats throughout this book.  It's as if she's trying to digest what's happened, still in shock at the suddeness of it all.  She and her husband sat down to dinner one night after visiting their sick daughter in the hospital and her husband had a heart attack, dying instantly.  She recalls the details of what happened that night and the nights that followed throughout the book, and the feelings that accompanied these memories.  Her denial of the reality of it is so heart-breaking, yet so real.  I can relate to how she thinks, reminiscing over the past and things said to each other and how something as simple as a plant can invoke memories that inevitably bring tears.  As a writer, herself, she has ways of describing things and comparing to what others have said that make it seem like you're the one grieving, although, I have to admit I truly felt like I was grieving with her.  "The question of self-pity" is another phrase she often repeats, trying to find her way through this grieving process, trying to become herself without her husband there.  Her grieving is put on hold, so to speak, due to her daughter being in the hospital with pneumonia and septic shock, followed by another hospital stint caused by a hemorrhage in her brain.  But when she's finally able to focus on herself, she finds it hard to go through the motions of everyday life because, as a writer, she's worked at home with her husband, who was also a writer who worked at home.  I found it interesting and almost endearing that she kept things like his shoes, because somewhere in her mind, while she was in the denial stage of grieving, she thought he'd need them when he came home.  It wasn't until she saw the autopsy report several months later that she was finally able to accept that he wasn't coming home.  She goes through in her mind how she could've prevented this, how she could fix it.  She goes through a depression of sorts, when she's crying all the time about little things that remind her of something she said or did with her husband.  She did go through the anger stage, because I remember her being angry that her daughter's doctor wanted to take the trach out.  It was a silly thing, but that's where her anger ended up being directed.  By the end of the year, she was sort of coming into an acceptance phase, attempting to move on and keep living.  One can feel the pain and emotional scarring that was left by this tragic event in this woman's life and I have to say, I feel fortunate to have been one of the readers she has shared her story with.

For a peak inside, click here.  I do recommend reading it, especially if you've lost someone close to you.  I can guess that knowing someone else has gone through this exact same thing would, in some way, be comforting.