Zandra: My Daughter, Diabetes, and Lessons in Love by Janet Hatch

 

I love reading other people's stories, because we can learn so much from each other. Today you can read an excerpt from Janet Hatch's Zandra: My Daughter, Diabetes, and Lessons in Love and her story of being a writer. Leave questions and comments as you follow the tour. Best of luck in the giveaway!

In this truly inspiring memoir, Janet Hatch shares her compelling story of raising her strong-willed daughter who, at age eleven, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. From the beginning of her life, Zandra experienced being different as a result of dietary restrictions, but nothing would prepare her for the tumultuous feelings that Zandra's diagnosis would bring. Janet's story chronicles the day-to-day life of raising a child through the teen years and into young adulthood, while reconciling her own insecurities.

After experiencing complications and additional illnesses from diabetes, Zandra's life became uncertain and bleak. When she learned of the death of her friend from diabetes, she began to spiral downward. This is a love story between a mother and daughter and demonstrates that although the bond may be challenged, it was created to endure. From travelling to Iceland in support of the Canadian Diabetes Association to receiving her beloved diabetic alert dog, Cinnamon, this story is one that will encourage all those who love a child, to look beyond fear and see beauty in every challenge.

Read an excerpt:

It would take me many years to understand that an ordinary emotion such as empathy was indeed an extraordinary gift. I could feel the emotions of others so deeply and on the same level as my own. I realized that I was different in this way. When friends could laugh at the expense of another, I never could, even as a joke. If I did, I was torn up about it inside to the point I felt ill. I was able to look at a photo and feel the mood in myself. I could walk into a room and know what others were feeling, yet there was no language to understand or express myself. These feelings further isolated me from others. I wasn’t able to be as carefree as I saw others were. I lost myself in the confusion of emotions within my home, school and outside world. I couldn’t separate my own feelings of despair from those I felt around me. I found it impossible to feel happy when I felt that others were not, and as I grew I became a sort of chameleon. Without effort, I knew what was needed. I could fill the gaps and be fun and spontaneous or a quiet listener for whomever needed me. At the best of times I felt I had a purpose and was needed, and at the worst of times I felt disconnected and out of tune with my own feeling.

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON.COM -AMAZON.CA - AMAZON KINDLE - BOOKSHOP - INDIGO CHAPTERS - BARNES & NOBLE - BOOK DEPOSITORY -  APPLE IBOOKS 

(The book will be free during the tour.)

“You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time, you must make it” ~Charles Buxton

Everything we do flows with the currency of time. From where we shop to the activities we enjoy, they are all decisions based on our time. When I started writing my book, “Zandra: My Daugher, Diabetes, and Lessons in Love”, I quickly found the cliché’s about time were true. If I were going to seriously commit to writing, I would need to rearrange some things in my life. Luckily for me, it was a short-lived problem, as my world soon arranged itself around the process of my creative thoughts.

As a mother of four, much of my time was spoken for and what wasn’t already earmarked was tenuous at best. At any moment I could get a call that would disrupt anything that I was doing. Countless calls from school, a dog that insisted he couldn’t wait for a walk, or an impromptu call or visit from a beloved friend could derail my plans. This was especially true as much of my writing was during the beginning of Covid and at-home-learning was taking over. As a mother I felt that my quiet time was hijacked already, but I hadn’t really felt the brunt of that until I started writing. For me, the process of just thinking about writing, led to the ideas I wanted to write about and ultimately created a working mind, even while doing dishes or shovelling snow. Ideas that needed to percolate in the background began to take form in the early morning of my sleep, without any effort.

Eventually I began to let go of the frustrations of not having ‘office time’ in the day, to allowing the process to happen naturally. I began to wake up every morning at 2am, without any alarms or effort, bursting with ideas already beginning to form. I carved out a ritual of coming downstairs in my quiet house to be completely alone with my thoughts and surprisingly enough, with a clear mind. As a life-long light sleeper, it wasn’t new to me to be sleepless in these morning hours, but now they were filled with purpose. After fighting with sleep for much of my life, I now learned to use this time to reflect on the life stories I wanted to share and not only put them into words, but also released the emotions that I had been carrying with them. In these early hours, I felt completely able to bring healing to those deep hurts and fears that I didn’t even realize were still lingering with the memories.

Waking up at 2am became effortless and routine. Often I would find myself waking up to my fingers typing the chapter that was waiting to be released. As my mornings began to blend together, I noticed myself heading to bed a little earlier, deciding to forgo the television. at the end of the night and gaining more rest time. This I realize, was the elimination of something in my schedule to make time for writing. What I found most surprising was that after I wrote my final chapter, I naturally stopped waking up so early. In fact, I can say I’ve never slept better.

I like to tell aspiring authors that they will need to ‘find’ the time, but what’s meant to be will flow easier if they allow their heart and soul to lead the way. A little prayer goes a long way and will lead you through a journey where you’ll not only be productive; you’ll experience a personal transformation.

About the author:

JANET HATCH is a mother of four who lives in Camrose, Alberta. She is passionate about using her experience of raising her diabetic daughter to support parents and caregivers through the emotional twists and turns of what can be a difficult journey of having a child with a serious illness. She is a lover of animals and enjoys spending time in nature with her dog, Axel.

WEBSITE - Janet Hatch – Author

INSTAGRAM - Janet Hatch (@janethatch) • Instagram photos and videos

GOODREADS - Janet Hatch (Author of Zandra) (goodreads.com)

Janet Hatch will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway