Jantsen's Gift: A True Story of Grief, Rescue, and Grace
Pam Cope, . . Grand Central, $24.99 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-446-19969-8
For Cope, life in her small Missouri town seemed perfect; she ran a hair salon, enjoyed a happy family life and lived in a beautiful home. Yet, she explains, “I have to say, I put on a hell of a performance. For a long time, I even had myself convinced of how good and right everything was in my life.” Her ideal was shattered in 1999 when Jantsen, her 15-year-old son, died suddenly from a heart ailment; this moving memoir recounts Cope's transformation and growth after her world collapsed. Her metamorphosis began after she accepted an invitation from a friend to visit Vietnam. Though Cope was wrapped in personal grief following the death of her son, the trip illuminated for her the superficial environment she inhabited. After visiting a local orphanage, Cope found for the first time in her life a sense of “wholeness and purpose.” Soon she stepped outside her own circumscribed world and began creating better lives for the abused, neglected and at-risk children she encountered, first in Vietnam then in Cambodia and Ghana. This is a wonderful story of a woman whose personal tragedy gave birth to a gift and how she fulfilled that legacy to make the world a better place.
Reviewed on: 02/23/2009
Genre: Nonfiction
Open Ebook - 978-0-446-55146-5
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Paperback - 336 pages - 978-0-446-19970-4