cover image Letters for Lizzie: A Story of Love, Friendship and a Battle for Life

Letters for Lizzie: A Story of Love, Friendship and a Battle for Life

James O'Donnell. Northfield Publishers, $12.99 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-881273-01-1

In 1994, O'Donnell left his Boston life as a high-profile investment executive and took his family to Indiana, where he accepted a position teaching business at a small Christian college. He thought that the family's greatest challenge would be learning to live on a fifth of their former income. But within months of their move, his wife, Lizzie, was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer and given only a few months to live. This book--a collection of letters written to friends back East from 1994 to 1996 to galvanize a prayer network on Lizzie's behalf--chronicles dark days of illness, fear and spiritual doubt. There are times when O'Donnell rages against God and other times when he manifests a deep acceptance of the situation. He also eloquently berates the superficial Christianity that is quick to spout platitudes about God's will. O'Donnell closes with an afterword, noting the miracle that Lizzie is still alive after battling surgeries, heart attacks, blood disorders, pneumonia and kidney failure. This is a mature and gritty account of wrestling with God and what it means to be a""new creation.""