Losing Susan: Brain Disease, the Priest's Wife, and the God Who Gives and Takes Away

by Victor Lee Austin

Overview

The Story of Brain Disease and the Priest's Wife

This is the story of Susan--a wife, mother, Christian believer, lover of children, writer of stories, and woman of extraordinary intellect. Susan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in her late thirties. Although it was successfully treated, the process led to her slow, unending decline.

In this personal story of love and loss, Victor Lee Austin shares how caring for his wife during her painful struggle with brain cancer and its aftereffects brought him face-to-face with his God and with his faith in unsettling ways. God gave Victor what his heart most desired--marriage to Susan--then God took away what he had given. Yet God never withdrew his presence. Weaving together autobiographical details and profound theological insights, this powerful narrative shows that we are called to turn to God in the face of suffering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493404698
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Victor Lee Austin (PhD, Fordham University), an Episcopal priest, is canon theologian and theologian-in-residence for the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and Church of the Incarnation in uptown Dallas. He has taught in various academic settings and is the author of several books, including Christian Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed and Up with Authority. He previously served as theologian-in-residence at the historic St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents

1. The Beginning
How We Met--How We Went to Church--That Summer--The Previous Christmas--Her Brilliant Childhood--A Hug--The Second-Best Book in the Bible--Rejection and Reversal--Heart's Desire--The Advent Calendar--The Tree of Life--Christmas Day--A Letter to Mr. Buckley--Susan Is Published on Abortion--Children--More Children
2. The Middle
Lights--To Do What Needs to Be Done--Prayer No Longer Makes Sense--Seizure Control--Where Was God?--He Taketh Away--On the Other Hand--God Intends to Kill Us--The Executive Function--How
That Worked Out--Evil: Take One--Evil: Take Two--Evil: Take Three--The Hip--My Church Friends--
Hydrocephalus--Graduations--Prevenient Grace--We Never Doubted God's Reality--Back to College--Back to Church--Susan Walking--Those Earlier Falls
3. The End
The Return of the Seizure--And Another--This Time in Hospital--Why I Witness to These Details--The Pebble Dare--The Year That Would Be the Last--At the Epilepsy
Unit--The Dark Night--Being Heard--Recovery--Anxiety--What the Body Knows--Blessed Speech
Therapists--The Happy Return to October; Its Tragic End--The Best Book in the Bible--Sandy--What Is It?--The Kidneys Have Their Say--Crossing Another Line--Tears and Hope--December 17, 2012--May She Rest--A Christian Service--Little Lady--Why Have You Forsaken Me?--Divergence and a Dream
Epilogue: To Plumb the Depths of God's Love by Susan Austin

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/09/2016
In this theologically grounded memoir, Episcopal priest and scholar Austin (Up With Authority) shares the heartbreaking story of his wife’s brain cancer and its horrible aftermath. Raw and honest, Austin forces the reader to confront what caring for a terminally ill loved one means—the pain, the exhaustion, the guilt, the joy. “It is a joy that wraps around both of us and lifts us up, in the midst of such a mundane human thing as caring for one another’s corporeality—lifts us up to the heights, to the heart of joy.” Throughout his wife’s illness, Austin also wrestles with God’s role in suffering and death. He contends that God is strange and sometimes awful, that God is love, that God gives generously but also brutally takes things away, and that God intends for each of us to die. Most importantly, he asserts that God is always present, even in our most painful moments. This book will warm readers’ hearts and bring them to tears. It is a story of what it really means to promise “for better or for worse” and a must for anyone who has labored along with a loved one through their suffering. (July)

Publishers Weekly