Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening [Hardcover]

Pat Hogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 1999

Aison's Gift is the true story of Alison Sanders' life and death-a story that has touched all of America. This is Alison's story and how her life found its way into millions of homes.

Alison's Gift is the triumph of love over life-ending experience. Along with Alison, meet real-life heroes who live through their greatest fears in a journey of loss, grief, and the rekindling of hope. This story chronicles Alison's life and death, her family's experience and her many legacies.

Alison, a vibrant child, had a mission in life to help others. In unique ways, both seen and unseen, her purpose lives on. Her fearlessness, compassion, and leadership qualities transformed her community in life and have reverberated throughout the country in her death. Alison's life was cut short by an air bag in a low-speed automobile collision. Meet Alison's father: although emotionally scarred by his loss, he starts a one-man crusade, forcing the auto industry to adopt safer air bag systems for our children.

Share a mother's impulse of love to create her own rituals in caring for her beloved daughter and forgo a conventional funeral. Come to the family's home, where hundreds of friends and relatives visit. Feel the love and support of a community as it encounters loss in its midst and comes to grips with a difficult good-bye.

This story portrays the spirit of Alison's childhood dreams as they become reality and affect a community and a nation.

Come visit a place in the heart where life and loss gently guide you in the ways of love.

Meet Alison and be touched by her many gifts!

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

This book is a product of the inspiration I had after experiencing the events of Alison Sanders' life and death. I was moved by the beauty and depth of my experience at her crossing from this world, an experience that was shared by many. Since that unique experience, I have come to see that many people through their deaths teach those of us who remain behind.

I would like to believe that there could be a magical quality to our lives and to the difficulties that we experience. I am convinced that there are deeper qualities that stand side by side our mundane lives. Some of us seek these qualities out and sometimes these qualities come for us- often in a guise that we do not recognize.

In Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening, there are events that strike at our very faith in life. No one would choose these events, in the same way that we would not choose to have our lives challenged beyond our ability to cope. Yet, a mother's heart brought forth an opportunity for the light of love to shine in the darkness of loss for a family and community.

The people who I have written about in this book are real heroes. They are heroes not because of what they were able to conquer, but because of what they were able to endure. Then, through willpower and perseverance, they created many positive legacies, transforming tragedy into a tool for improving life and helping others.

Ultimately, I have sought to portray the universal qualities beyond the specific events described. I believe that the magic that each of us desires is as close to us as the losses and gains of our ordinary lives. For whatever reason, sometimes it the most dramatic experiences that bring this into focus.

I hope that you find joy here, feel some magic in these pages and experience the exquisite beauty that inspired me to write this story. My prayer is that Alison's gifts of courage, selflessness and love will help each of us to bring forth the heart of the hero that lives within.

About the Author

Pat Hogan graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Psychology and has done research in the field of consciousness for 20 years. He also works as a freelance writer. His Irish ancestry has given him a penchant for telling a story and finding beauty in simplicity.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 150 pages
• Publisher: Nosila Pub; F edition (February 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966817702
• ISBN-13: 978-0966817706
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,593,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to read and pass around..., October 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening (Hardcover)

Facing the unthinkable--the sudden death of a child--this thought lurks uncomfortably in the corners of my and every parent's mind. What is the big picture of life and death, destiny, the love and role of parent and child, family, and the friendship of others? Alison's Gift is the story of the sudden death of a child of a mother that could easily be in my own circle of friends. Beth Sanders, with the support of her friends and family, follows her own intuition about how to handle the physical, emotional, and spiritual details of the crossing of her child from this life into the next. I found myself fasciinated, touched, and, yet, strengthened by the telling of this story by author, Pat Hogan. The results were a sense of inner calm and that "unthinkable" feeling subsiding. This book has that ability to show the reader how to tread down a path that we all are unsure of. It is a book to read and pass around.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tune Nobody Will Ever Forget, September 28, 2000

By 

"falconwoman2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening (Hardcover)

Alison was a delightful and loving little girl who lost her life all too soon. Fortunately, Alison's mission, her song of peace, her vision of helping other people realize their potentials was her legacy. Although we paid the highest price with the loss of this wonderful, gifted, loving child, we did inherit her legacy. We love Alison.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courageous..., September 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening (Hardcover)

This story is the tragic account of the completely unneccessary death of a young child because of an airbag. I often found myself crying as the author spelled out some of the details of the ordeal that he and his family lived through as a result of that car accident. I found myself crying both for them and for me (because I, too, have suffered loss because of an airbag). I think that this book was probably a tremendous avenue for the author to deal with his grief, and I applaud his courage for doing so. At times, I found myself to be disturbed by the descriptions of some of the things that the family chose to do related to final arrangements for their daughter. Everyone, however, deals with grief and loss in his/her own way...and has the right to do so. Once again, courageous, but disturbing. Overall, a pretty well-written story - almost more of a journal,really. I found myself wanting more to be said about the dangers of airbags than was said. I realize, however, that the author's focus was honoring the loss of a child in his life....not "righting the wrongs" of the automotive industry. And in that, he did a good job.