In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant.Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein’s donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to … wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately.
A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: “I’m there.” Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy’s side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one another—passed the baton of friendship, one to the next, and headed straight and strong into the battle to help save Amy’s life.
Empowered by the kind of empathy that can only grow with age, these women, each knowing Amy from different stages of her life, banded together to provide her with something that medicine alone could not. Sleeping on a cot beside her bed, they rubbed her back and feet when the pain was unbearable, adorned her room with death-distracting decorations, and engaged in their “best talks ever.” They saw the true measure of their friend’s strength, and they each responded in kind.
My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is a tribute to these women and the intense hours they spent together—hours of heightened emotion and self-awareness, where everything was laid bare. Candid and heartrending, this once-in-a-lifetime story of connection and empathy is a powerful reminder of the ultimate importance of “showing up” for those we love.
more
Crikey this was a difficult book for me to read. Beautiful and redemptive, but harrowing. As Amy waits for her second transplant what she undergoes is almost beyond the realm of human endurance. This memoir definitely gave me PTSD from my own transplant – the fear, the messiness, the anger, the pain. It also reminded me of the miraculous things – my friends, my family, my medical team, all those amazing nurses…this was a hard read for me but ultimately a redemptive one.
The title pulled me in, and I researched the quote. The author’s story is inspirational and made me think about what kind of friend I am and also about which of my friends would be there for me in the way her friends were there for her.
This was an amazing, tremendously moving book about the value of friends in one’s life. An incredible book, and one of the best I have ever read. What the author endured awaiting her second heart transplant, and what her friends (and husband) did for her makes for a most inspiring story.
This is an amazing book. Well written and it brings the reader into unfolding story. No spoiler in this review, a great read!!
At the beginning of the story, I was put off by the main character’s self-centered whiny qualities. Then I realized that the author’s life-long struggle surely required that steely determination just to survive, and that if she had been saintly and accepting of her situation, she probably would’ve been long dead by now. We’d all like to think we would be television heroines in the same situation, but this woman tells it like it truly was. I recommend this book.
A chance to step into someone else’s shoes and experience her pain and torment of being near death and yet seeing and feeling the love of her family and friends caring so deeply. This book will change you.
This is a tremendous read—very inspiring.
Extremely interesting, and very informative about women’s friendships. I strongly recommend this book.
This book is very thought-provoking in a variety of ways. I believe there is a message for those in the midst of health issues as well as others who would so wish to be supportive. Made me want to be a more attentive and empathic friend!
Read at your own risk – you will probably want to smack the author. I know I did.
The characters in this book were all people I would love to have as friends. The medical side of the story was informative, and the personal side was amazing and inspirational. I would read more by this author.
You feel sorry for the main character and her trivails, but it is quite repeditive.
This is one of the best books I have read in quite some time. I have been recommending it to all my friends.
This is more than a “story”. It is the document that shows just how important friends are and how with good friends, one can get through the worst that life can through at you. Have kleenex available but don’t give up reading. It’s inspiring to the end.
Very moving insight into the strength required to more than survive a chronic illness.
I enjoyed this emotional and inspirational book. This is a memoir of the author’s illness and how she was grateful and humbled by the support of 9 friends who made a schedule to be with her every night in the hospital as she waited for a heart to be avsi.able for Transplant. These friends flew cross country from the East coast to California for a week at a time, leaving their families and their very intense and demanding jobs to be there for her. This book is a tribute to these loving and loyal friends. The author bares her soul and because of the illness her body at times. These women reach a much deeper level of friendship because of the concentrated time spent with the author and each other. I highly recommend this book,
Amazing story!
We should all hope to have such friends as Amy!
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous! Amy’s story is moving on a purely human level: she’s living with a failing donor heart. Her glory WAS that she had such friends. They loved, cheer-led, cried, laughed & endured together. They boosted each other & never gave up believing in Amy & their friendships. This was one of the most moving books I’ve had the privilege of reading & reinforced my belief that the love we hold dear for our friends is life giving. Do yourself a favor & read this book!