Heart's Oratorio

“Slipping out of coma, wresting erasure, I enter stuttering awareness. The last thing I clearly remember is standstill. My fiancé David and I at the very back of the airplane. Late. Worried that we may not make our connecting flight. Enclosed space, forced air, standing in the last row. The clatter of overhead bins opening. Fellow passengers reaching for their baggage. Unheeded requests from flight attendants to allow those with connecting flights to disembark first. Standing still, the weight of my overloaded backpack, its straps digging into my shoulders. The press of people into the aisle, people and their bags ahead of us. Delay. The Next thing I know...blear and blur—black pulsating void dissolving as I am drawn into the sounds surrounding me...”

A memoir about life (and near-death) with a genetic heart condition. This book is composed of many voices: physical and metaphysical; medical and mystical. It’s a love story, a heroine’s journey and a medical drama that explores the fragility and resilience of the human heart. The journey portrayed reconciles the author’s family heritage of natural healing and the conflict that arises between a holistic and spiritual orientation with Western technology.

This literary nonfiction narrative weaves between personal and mythic realms, depicting a mother’s love for her children at risk and a woman’s love for a man who stands by her in the darkest hours. "Heart’s Oratorio" provides examples of the miraculous, offering hope to those dealing with chronic and life-threatening illness.