The Heart's Gift

The Heart's Gift is a story of growth, maturity and personal triumph. It transcends generations. It is simply a story that carries the tenderness and passion of a mother's diary into the pages of a tenacious journal. The book comes alive with expressions of personal hopes and dreams as it transcribes real events in the world of motherhood and business.

The book poignantly captures the experiences of a woman who is unexpectedly catapulted into a new phase of adulthood and an emotional quest for independence. Her child's hospitalizations spark a thirst for learning about the healthcare community and the business world, which ultimately leads the author from her domestic duties to Graduate School and a professional career. As her marriage crumbles, she emerges with a new passion for living. In letters of reflection to Jill, the author describes her first decade as a businesswoman, a career counterbalanced with life as a single mother. The challenge she faces brings her to the realization that, at times, she is growing up right along with her children.

The Heart's Gift is a woman's memoir of letters written to her daughter, who was born with a severe congenital heart malformation from which no child had ever survived. The journal chronicles her daughter's life, describing in intimate detail how the child's illness impacted her mother's personal growth. The twenty-one years from Jill's birth to the completion of the book represents a spiritual passage for the author -- one that helps define her true essence as a woman.

The Heart's Gift presents the author's philosophy gleaned from her journey. The author reminds us that there are "Gifts" in life from which we can learn about ourselves to become stronger, more empowered individuals.