It found me when I was born into severe poverty. It showed itself when I was receiving last rites in a hospital bed. Then it held me as I stood next to the President of the United States and the First Lady at the Inaugural Ball.

It was faith. My faith in God has never wavered. He has sustained me through an unimaginable illness with an unrelenting determination to stay alive for my precious son, Jack.

I am proof that the human spirit, grounded in God’s love, is more powerful than the ills that can attack our bodies. I’m still alive because for some reason God needs me to be. There must be more for me to do, and maybe this book is that thing. Baring my soul and reliving each moment to share it with you was one of the most gut-wrenching things I’ve ever had to do, but I was determined to not allow my life story to die with me, and now it won’t.

My son Jack is my legacy. I will live on through him and the pages of this memoir, a life lived and written by me.