Severed Sacredness is your memoir sharing the story of your daughter’s long, grueling journey of survival and recovery and the power that hope and faith played during this challenging time. Why was this an important book for you to write?

Because of a promise. The depth of pain and the massive amounts of story and miracle were being held inside of me. A wide sweep of online research left me unable to find anyone with a story like hers with the depth of injury that she had suffered in hopes to show recovery was possible with quality of life. I had promised God if our daughter recovered with any kind of quality of life I would write the story for the ONE person who was searching for HOPE and couldn’t find it. I kept my promise and wrote her story. What I discovered while I was writing was also important. I had a great amount of unprocessed grief due to being in the throes of full-time caring and intensive rehabilitation I never had the time to grieve all the loss that comes with a devastating trauma. As I wrote the book I grieved as if it was happening all over again. After writing the full manuscript I came to the realization that I had emptied all of my story and grief onto the pages of the book which was so freeing. The spaces that once held the grief and stories were now empty and the story was now safe and preserved. It was such a gift to find friendship with my grief and to no longer hide it or ignore it. I have found a beautiful balance of all that we have endured and survived which has now prepared me to step into another unexpected role of public speaking to share hope and faith with many of the stories and tools I have gained through this life journey.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

Placing myself back into the moments of such devastation and having to feel the horrific pain of seeing Jessie injured so critically with such gross disfigurement of her beautiful head and the remembering of all that she lost in that one moment of impact. Reliving all those moments of when her life hung in the balance and having to navigate her care with such intentional focus over and over again. Seeing the normalcy of lives go on when hers was literally cut off at the root but she still lived with such agonizing injuries with no easy answers or quick fixes. LONG JOURNEY OF RECOVERY.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

To never never give up hope. To stay in the moment when in crisis. To take the next right step. To know that God will send help. That you are never alone. With God ALL THINGS are possible. To show how to navigate healthcare in ways that can advocate for your beloved one.

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?

That no matter how devastating and hopeless life looks and feels, there is hope. There is always hope.

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