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A gift of life in A Gift Of Love
Added: (Wed Oct 11 2006)
A gift of life in A Gift Of Love
There is love in this world — and there is beauty as well. There is joy and sorrow, forgiveness and compassion. It often depends where we choose to look, what we choose to find and, above all, how we choose to respond to our surroundings and the events that influence our lives.
Maeve Omstead-Johnston understands the forces that create the building blocks of a life. She appreciates that we each have our own path to follow, our own destiny to shape, our own decisions to make. That is what makes each of us so wonderfully human — and that is what lies at the heart and soul of Omstead-Johnston’s new book, A Gift Of Love.
This is a story of a loving, deeply connected family — a family with a closely held secret. At its core, it is the story of Anna, who comes to adulthood in Toronto believing that she is the daughter of one woman — Nancy — but learns, in a secret letter upon Nancy’s death from cancer, that her true birth mother — Maria — is living in Italy, having gone blind years ago as a result of glaucoma.
What follows from that point forward speaks eloquently and delicately about the power of love and family and commitment. Anna the daughter has a decision to make: Should she follow the path that Nancy wishes her to take — or is the risk too great? Is the unknown — the prospect of meeting the mother she has never known — simply too frightening to contemplate?
A Gift Of Love is intriguingly written with a flashback and flash-forward style spanning the decades of time in a family’s complex life. It is written in a very personal, very human style, drawing in the reader straight from the opening page — and holding the reader’s attention through to its conclusion.
Omstead-Johnston’s compelling story touches us at the deepest emotional level. We somehow see ourselves in Anna, and Nancy, and Maria — and we wonder how we might respond under similar difficult circumstances. This is a perfect book for a reflective Sunday afternoon: Light the fireplace, pour a coffee . . . and enjoy A Gift Of Love.
A Gift Of Love
by Maeve Omstead-Johnston
ISBN 097309381-1
$14.99 Cdn $12.99 US