Hannah's Gift
Lessons from a life fully lived

Maria Housden

People who know me would not believe if I say I ended up crying while I read this book. But believe it or not, this is the truth. I haven't read such a emotionally captivating and moving book in a long while and I doubt if anything I have ever read or will ever read, will ever come close to this. This is a true story written by a mother of four, of how she faced the tragedy of seeing her daughter die and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

How can you not love the little three year old girl with the red leather shoes, Who thinks when she goes to heaven , she will become a butterfly.

What do you say to a child, who tells you she is not going to have birthdays after 4 ? What do you say as mother, when a child knows she is going to die and asks you , "Mommy, do children die?"

What would you feel for a mother, who has had her 3rd miscarriage in the morning and later in the day her three year old daughter is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer? How would a mother feel when she sees her daughter's body go limp and pale with every passing day ? When the inevitability of death wins over all the love and prayers in this world?

Death, something we all know awaits us sooner or later but we don't want to think or talk about it, as if by not talking we are pushing it further away. If ever there was a book which could cut through the layers we build up over the years and touch us where it feels this is it.

The books presents a vivid story of a little playful girl and her mother and how they face cancer. How the daughter courageously accepts the reality and makes the most out of the time left and the mother and family weep and suffer through.

Though the mother later comes to terms with her daughter's death and moves on in life with a deep scar in her heart and an even stronger belief in god. For an atheist like me, this just gives another reason to question God's logic, if at all there is any in this? God, I have another Axe to grind.