Maureen was our second child, and it was clear at her birth she was not well.  We didn’t know what was wrong or if she could get better.  The book tells of our struggles to keep her alive and then to help her thrive as she survived.  It was two years before we knew what was wrong and as she became healthier her personality began to emerge.  Despite her maladies and a couple of close calls we had a full family life, the four of us.

On her brother’s high school graduation day, Maureen passed quietly into the next life.  Barbara, Martin (her older brother) and I did her funeral service to honor our courageous daughter and sister.  We all decided to go to a Spiritualist church two weeks later to see if Maureen would come through from spirit and she did!  We talk of healing from her passing and the ongoing contacts with our daughter’s spirit.

The book has so many stories.  We want people to look at life through our lens to understand her life not as tragedy but as a life of growth and joy.  We weave in our spiritual understandings, our thoughts on the medical and educational communities, and our love of life.  Maureen was a gift to us which we would like to share with the readers of our book.

Although I wrote the book, I did so with frequent memory sessions with Barbara.  Martin wrote a beautiful chapter to share his sister through his eyes.

We hope to encourage couples with medically challenged children, to care givers of medically challenged children and to comfort people who have lost a child by sharing our experiences and insights.