A Brain Tumor Changes Everything: Searching for the Shape of Mercy in a Suffering Season: A Mother's Memoir

What would you do if an inoperable tumor occupied the brainstem of your young adult son? What would your next steps be? How would you begin to pray?
In 2011, Jan Woltmann’s twenty-one-year-old son, Nate, was diagnosed with brain cancer: the cancer was lethal, the situation tragic, and hope gone.
Medical science did everything possible through aggressive radiation and the strongest chemotherapy to delay the tumor’s advance, even as Jan and her husband slipped deeper into darkness and grief. The couple did all the things parents do in the wake of heartbreak: they wept, ached, prayed, and planned for the worst loss imaginable.
This is a story about suffering that sets a place for you at the kitchen table, around the Christmas tree, and inside the waiting rooms at CancerCare. This is a story for old souls—those for whom life has ripened, either suddenly or over time, and who find themselves in search of life’s mystery and meaning in the midst of sorrow.
Following a compelling medical narrative, and textured by contemplative Christian thinkers, A Brain Tumor Changes Everything speaks the language of grief, seeks the presence of mercy, and finds the surprise of God.

Jan Woltmann is a practitioner of spiritual direction in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She holds a Master of Arts degree from Providence Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Winnipeg. Jan is married to Norm, and they have three married children and a lively bunch of grandchildren. Her greatest love is family, and she delights in their company, either around a bustling dinner table, or at the family cabin on the shores of Lake Winnipeg.