Peter CostelloIt is As it Is: a True Story of Hope Loss and Friendship
by Malina Stahre-Godycka
(Veritas, €14.99)
Serious illness is always a fraught experience for an individual and for those around them. In this moving book, Polish writer Malina Stahre-Godycka recounts through a diary over some three years of the cancer of her friend, Prudentia.
The illness tested their relationship, but through her experiences the author comes to terms with not only death, for it ends with Prudential’s funeral, but also with life and what it must inevitably involve.
Our own Sr Stan having read this “inspirational little book” found it compelling reading. It told the author that her document “is a fully human, alive, spiritual story of deep, faith, hope and love, challenged at times but always winning out”. Through their brave honesty the author and her friend have created a book for all seasons, both the darkness of winter and glory of spring.
Many will take great comfort for their own situation from Malina Stahre-Godycka experiences of great losses and greater gains.