Keeping Katherine - by Susan Zimmermann (Paperback)

About the Book

What happens when you have life on a string and then everything changes? The author tells the story of life with her daughter, Katherine, who developed Rett Syndrome without warning. This is the story of a soul-searching journey through grief, loss, hope, anger, and despair to a place of unconditional love.

Book Synopsis

Katherine was a beautiful, perfect baby for the first year of her life. Then, without warning, she changed forever. She started crossing her eyes. She cried at night for hours at a time and could not be soothed. She stopped saying words, stopped crawling, and began what would become a lifelong habit of wringing her hands. Hospital visits and consultations with doctors offered no answers to the mystery. Soon Katherine slipped away to a place her mother and father could never reach.

In Keeping Katherine, Susan Zimmermann tells the story of her life with her daughter Katherine, who has Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological disorder. Writing with honesty and candor, Zimmermann chronicles her personal journey to accept the changed dynamic of her family; the strain of caring for a special needs child and the pressure it placed on her marriage, career, and relationship with her parents; the dilemma of whether Kat would be better cared for in a group home; and most important, the altered reality of her daughter's future. A story of personal transformation that reminds us that it isn't what happens to us that shapes our humanity, but how we react, Keeping Katherine shows the unconditional love that exists in families and the gifts the profoundly disabled can offer to those who try to understand them.

Review Quotes

"Susan Zimmermann's deeply moving book will touch all people, not only parents. Her courage, her joy, and her hope reach through her tragedy and offer us all a way of life that is creative, no matter what the circumstances." --Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery Award-winning author

"Susan Zimmermann portrays, with honesty, passion, and wisdom, a chapter of her life that is both deeply terrifying and wholly inspiring. It is a story of loss and gain, pain and joy, and--above all--profound truth. It is a story with the power to change your life." --T. A. Barron, author of Heartlight, The Ancient One, and The Lost Years of Merlin series

"Susan's story--and Kat's--is a profound gift. Susan reminds us that it isn't what happens to us that determines our life, but how we respond to it." --Marilyn Van Derbur, author of Miss America By Day

About the Author

Susan Zimmermann lives in Colorado with her husband and four children. She is the author of Writing to Heal the Soul and a coauthor of The 7 Keys to Comprehension and The Mosaic of Thought.