Eloise: Letters to a Lost Child

On 7 May 1978 a drunk driver ran down a mother and her two children. Eloise Lavallee's life was changed forever. She and her four-year-old son were not badly hurt, but her seven-month-old daughter was severely injured. Both of Eloise's legs were broken, her back was broken and a vertebra in her neck was ced. Two months after the accident, during another long and painful surgery, oxygen was cut off to Eloise's brain and she suffered severe brain damage. Eloise would never walk, talk or see again. For the next twelve years Eloise needed constant medical attention, numerous corrective surgeries and help in every aspect of daily life. A day before she was to turn thirteen years old she died quietly at home, in her mother's arms, finally succumbing to her injuries. A brief, sweet and terrible life ended. For the next two years Lavallee wrote letters to her daughter. They are letters of love, despair, sorrow — and, ultimately — hope, written to her baby girl. But they are more than letters to a dead child; they form a map for anyone who has lost someone close to them. They outline the long road Lavallee travelled from complete despair to taking the first hopeful steps to rebuilding her own life. The letters chronicle Lavallee's memories of that day in 1978, the joys of a mother playing with her beloved and damaged child, the feeling of warmth draining from her daughter's body and the slow quickening of hope after the long winter of sorrow. Written in a rich poetic language, these letters give the reader a way of finding hope in a hopeless situation, peace in the face of devastation and insight into the strength of the soul.

Название: Eloise: Letters to a Lost Child
Автор: Loise Lavallee
Издательство: Insomniac Press
ISBN:1894663233
Дата издания:2002–03
Страниц:168
Язык: Английский
Формат: PDF
Размер: 2.8 MB