Finding Perspective in Love and Loss

A friend suggested I read this book and, after reading it, I highly recommend it to any special needs parent.



Here is a description of the story from the book's website:

Although apparently normal at birth, Alexis never grew to be larger than a six-year old. She could never sit, stand, walk, talk or feed herself. She never played with a toy or knew she had a birthday. An exception in every way, doctors guessed Alexis' IQ to be less than fifty, and she never had a diagnosis. Alexis lived for twenty-nine years with her mother, Margaret.

When Alexis dies mysteriously on a cold, January morning, Margaret is expected by family and friends to accept Alexis' death and her own complicated life without answers. Instead, she begins to search for a perspective to give her the peace to accept the loss of the child who had become part of her soul. Having a special child shakes you to the core and makes you question everything about your life--your parents, your upbringing, your religious beliefs--and influences every action you take, every choice you make. It opens the heart for profound love. It teaches you grace.

Remembering Alexis, Finding Perspective in Love and Loss is a record of Margaret's search for that grace. In recounting a life of naive expectation and profound disillusionment, of faith lost and regained, and of love recognized and treasured, Margaret asks the questions that few of us have the courage to ask. In the honesty of her thoughts and her willingness to look beyond standards and stereotypes, she shows a depth of vision and a strength of character and faith that only trials can create. She celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit and the sacredness of each individual's journey and in doing so makes her story an everyman story. Who is us is living the life we thought we would? Who of us has found all the answers? Remembering Alexis helps us believe that we can accept life without all of the answers.

I also enjoyed reading other stories that were shared on the book's site, here.

Do you have any other book recommendations? Please share!