Jantsen's Gift: A True Story of Grief, Rescue, and Grace - Hardcover

Cope, Pam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446199699 ISBN 13: 9780446199698

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

Nine years ago, Pam Cope owned a cozy hair salon in the tiny town of Neosho, Missouri, and her life revolved around her son's baseball games, her daughter's dance lessons, and family trips to places like Disney World. She had never been out of the country, nor had she any desire to travel far from home.

Then, on June 16th, 1999, her life changed forever with the death of her 15-year-old son from an undiagnosed heart ailment.

Needing to get as far away as possible from everything that reminded her of her loss, she accepted a friend's invitation to travel to Vietnam, and, from the moment she stepped off the plane, everything she had been feeling since her son's death began to shift. By the time she returned home, she had a new mission: to use her pain to change the world, one small step at a time, one child at a time. Today, she is the mother of two children adopted from Vietnam. More than that, she and her husband have created a foundation called "Touch A Life," dedicated to helping desperate children in countries as far-flung as Vietnam, Cambodia and Ghana.

Pam Cope's story is on one level a moving, personal account of loss and recovery, but on a deeper level, it offers inspiration to anyone who has ever suffered great personal tragedy or those of us who dream about making a difference in the world.

About this title

About the Author

In 2000, Pam Cope founded Touch A Life Foundation by establishing a shelter in Saigon for homeless children. Touch A Life now supports 224 children in Vietnam and helps fund the Place of Rescue in Cambodia, a safe haven for famillies who have been stricken with the AIDS virus. Pam is now working to raise funds to build a center for children in northern Ghana who have been rescued from slavery. Pam lives in Joplin, Missouri with her husband, Randy, and her children, Van and Tatum. Her older daughter, Crista, attends college.

Aimee Molloy is a freelance journalist and the co-author, with Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, of This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for The Future; and For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire with James Yee. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From Publishers Weekly

For Cope, life in her small Missouri town seemed perfect; she ran a hair salon, enjoyed a happy family life and lived in a beautiful home. Yet, she explains, I have to say, I put on a hell of a performance. For a long time, I even had myself convinced of how good and right everything was in my life. Her ideal was shattered in 1999 when Jantsen, her 15-year-old son, died suddenly from a heart ailment; this moving memoir recounts Cope's transformation and growth after her world collapsed. Her metamorphosis began after she accepted an invitation from a friend to visit Vietnam. Though Cope was wrapped in personal grief following the death of her son, the trip illuminated for her the superficial environment she inhabited. After visiting a local orphanage, Cope found for the first time in her life a sense of wholeness and purpose. Soon she stepped outside her own circumscribed world and began creating better lives for the abused, neglected and at-risk children she encountered, first in Vietnam then in Cambodia and Ghana. This is a wonderful story of a woman whose personal tragedy gave birth to a gift and how she fulfilled that legacy to make the world a better place. (Apr.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0446199699
• ISBN 13: 9780446199698
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320