The balm of reading: how a dozen women around books to lift up an ailing sister - books-n-clubs - Brief Article

The events of September 11th have inevitably changed us all, but they will, if we band together, make us all stronger. While we stand strong in the face of adversity and remain united as a grieving nation, our own personal paths to healing will be uniquely different. Of this, Donna Sheffield bears witness. For when breast cancer catapulted her sister, Brenda Days, into a pit of depression, literature became the mechanism through which her sister healed her pain. Reading groups can play an important role in healing those of us who grieve and, indeed, in our healing as a nation and in healing relationships across nationalities, religions and cultures. I encourage you to lean on your book clubs. Read books that explore the vital issues of our day and share your thoughts and feelings honestly about what you read. I invite you to tell me how the dramatic events of these times have affected your clubs and your reading selections. I wish you peace and healing.

Donna Sheffield loves happy endings. A passionate reader, she has consumed countless tales whose characters experience healing and victory. So when breast cancer torpedoed her sister, Brenda Days, into a pit of depression, Sheffield's real life suddenly resembled a familiar plot. Except Sheffield's sister was not just a character destined to rebound at the end of the book, and there was no guarantee of a happily-ever-after epilogue.

"Brenda's depression was unbearable," Sheffield recalls. "With all the typical post-cancer moods and phases, she was someone I didn't know anymore. I didn't want to avert her attention away from healing herself, but I wanted Brenda to get involved in life as she had been before. I wanted my sister back."

Sheffield recalled the harmony of the spiritually grounded women in a former reading group. Examining literature as it related to life's issues suddenly offered hope.

"When my sister was sick and cried out to me," "I don't care what you do, but do something" I remembered what that reading group had done for me," says Sheffield. "We could talk about anything, and invariably someone in the group had words of comfort to make the situation seem not so overwhelming. We could take off our masks, be who we really were without being judged or questioned. We were accepted unconditionally. The peace I found sharing with those sisters was strengthening and empowering"

Sheffield believed that her sister could benefit as she had. So with the express purpose of boosting her sister's morale, Sheffield selected ten women. Using literature as a catalyst for healing, Sisters United in Verse, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania reading group, was born.

"It was important to handpick members. I chose them because of their spirits and minds"

The group showered their beloved member with an outpouring of support, but Sheffield still had a minor problem: Brenda, it seems, was not much of a reader.

"When we started the group, she never read the books," says Sheffield. "She would obtain each book, state that she was going to read it and didn't. But I never gave up on her."

Despite the thought-provoking discussions fostered by the group, Brenda sat in silence at each monthly meeting. Then, maintaining her distance became increasingly difficult, especially when Jean "Stevie" Stevenson entered the reading room. This young protagonist of April Sinclair's coming of age tale, Coffee Will Make You Black, was the first character to pique Brenda's reading interest. Next, Adrena Reynolds, the rape and child-abuse victim in Bernadette Connor's debut thriller, Damaged, opened a portal of self-reflection for Brenda.

"The discussions got so heated and intense that Brenda became curious and intrigued. The sisters were so involved, she wondered if the characters we were discussing were true-to-life people," said Sheffield.

From those beginnings, Brenda's reading interest slowly grew. Sheffield's perseverance eventually paid off with the group's discussion of The Value in The Valley, a motivational title by Iyanla Vanzant. Brenda embarked on a path towards healing.

"Because Vanzant explains how simple it is to live a healthy and fulfilling life, Brenda's layer of tough skin begin to peel away, and the tender more gentle side of her began to show up," says Sheffield. "The group became a cocoon around Brenda then. She began to break out, and we stood back further and further until she was a full-fledged butterfly taking flight. Brenda now makes sure she reads the books each month."

"Books are a springboard to discussing and healing our lives and those of people we know," continues Sheffield. "Our discussions become heated when a book takes us down memory lane and we don't want to go down that street again. When we do go there, a healing begins that we never thought possible"

As Brenda Days continues to heal, Donna Sheffield still enjoys those happy endings.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group