Hannah’s Gift is a novel, written by Maria Housden, Hannah’s mother. It tells the true story of a little girl, Hannah, who at the age of 2 is diagnosed with cancer.
I first read this novel about 8 years ago, and simply could not put it down. I read it in one sitting and when finished, well into the early hours of the morning, I went and climbed into bed with my little girl, held her close and cried.
An excerpt:
” When my daugher Hannah was diagnosed with cancer, one month before her third birthday, everything I had believed about myself and my life was called into question. In the face of the fiercest, most unrelenting truth, I began to look for new answers. Hannah herself became my teacher. Honest, funny, and fearless in the way she lived her life and embraced her death, Hannah opened me to a deeper wisdom, to a more joyful, less fearful way of living.”
To read this novel is to see life through the eyes of a 3 yr old.
The patent red leather shoes on the cover drew me to this book – i’m definately a ‘visual reader’ if i don’t know the author. But once I’d read the blurb on the back I knew I was going to buy it. Perhaps also because my eldest was 3 at the time, and the thought of having to lose her to cancer was more than I could imagine?
This remarkable little girl opens our hearts to what really matters in life – she makes us stop and smell the roses – something we so often forget to do in our daily journeys.
It’s a remarkable story, told from the heart and will bring comfort to anyone who has lost a loved one, and renew your faith in the power of love.
Just have a box of tissues handy when you do read it – tear-jerker is an understatement.