Keeping Katherine: A Mother's Journey to Acceptance [Paperback]

Susan Zimmermann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

Katherine was a beautiful, perfect baby for the first year of her life. Then, without warning, she changed forever. She started crossing her eyes. She cried at night for hours at a time and could not be soothed. She stopped saying words, stopped crawling, and began what would become a lifelong habit of wringing her hands. Hospital visits and consultations with doctors offered no answers to the mystery. Soon Katherine slipped away to a place her mother and father could never reach.

In Keeping Katherine, Susan Zimmermann tells the story of her life with her daughter Katherine, who has Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological disorder. Writing with honesty and candor, Zimmermann chronicles her personal journey to accept the changed dynamic of her family; the strain of caring for a special needs child and the pressure it placed on her marriage, career, and relationship with her parents; the dilemma of whether Kat would be better cared for in a group home; and most important, the altered reality of her daughter’s future. A story of personal transformation that reminds us that it isn’t what happens to us that shapes our humanity, but how we react, Keeping Katherine shows the unconditional love that exists in families and the gifts the profoundly disabled can offer to those who try to understand them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Susan Zimmermann’s deeply moving book will touch all people, not only parents. Her courage, her joy, and her hope reach through her tragedy and offer us all a way of life that is creative, no matter what the circumstances.” —Madeleine L’Engle, Newbery Award–winning author

“Susan Zimmermann portrays, with honesty, passion, and wisdom, a chapter of her life that is both deeply terrifying and wholly inspiring. It is a story of loss and gain, pain and joy, and—above all—profound truth. It is a story with the power to change your life.” —T. A. Barron, author of Heartlight, The Ancient One, and The Lost Years of Merlin series

“Susan’s story—and Kat’s—is a profound gift. Susan reminds us that it isn’t what happens to us that determines our life, but how we respond to it.” —Marilyn Van Derbur, author of Miss America By Day

About the Author

Susan Zimmermann lives in Colorado with her husband and four children. She is the author of Writing to Heal the Soul and a coauthor of The 7 Keys to Comprehension and The Mosaic of Thought.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400052017
• ISBN-13: 978-1400052011
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

An internationally-known speaker and workshop leader, Susan Zimmermann is coauthor of the educational bestsellers Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition (2007) and 7 Keys to Comprehension (with Chryse Hutchins, 2003). She cofounded and served as the Executive Director of the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, an organization that has spearheaded ground-breaking comprehension work. During her ten years there, she initiated numerous programs to improve the quality of public schools, including the Reading Project, which has been implemented in more than one hundred schools and provides the examples in Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition, and 7 Keys. As part of Heinemann Speakers, Susan also provides Professional development through Heinemann related to comprehension strategy teaching. Visit her Heinemann Speakers page for more information. Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine (2005); Writing to Heal the Soul (2002), winner of the Colorado Book Award; and Grief Dancers (1996), finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the Exceptional Parent symbol of excellence for its "profound contribution to human understanding and dignity." These wise and inspiring books grew out of Susan's personal experience of raising her profoundly handicapped daughter Katherine, who developed normally for her first year, but then experienced a devastating neurological disorder (Rett syndrome) that left her unable to walk, talk or feed herself. Currently a full-time speaker and writer, Susan has given hundreds of workshops, keynotes, and summer institutes in over 40 states, throughout Canada, and in Mexico on ways to deepen reading and writing experiences for adults and children. A lover of the wilderness and believer in the transformative power of the outdoors, she has been a trustee of the Colorado Outward Bound School and served as the board chair of The Women's Wilderness Institute, an organization that provides wilderness learning experiences for adolescent girls and women. Susan is a graduate of Yale Law School and mother of four. She lives in the foothills west of Denver. For more information on Susan Zimmermann visit her Web site at www.susanzimmermann.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest Words, January 22, 2005

By 

Carolyn Murray "Carolyn Kresse Murray" (Jacksonville Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Katherine: A Mother's Journey to Acceptance (Paperback)

I always scan the newest titles in the special needs section when I visit bookstores. My son, like Zimmermann's daughter, is profoundly disabled. I look for books that connect me to the author's experiences. It helps me to feel less alone. I really scored with this one.

Keeping Katherine is a wise book, exceptionally well-written and honest. Although I didn't go through the extended period of repressed grieving that the author did, I understand it. Among most of us with non-verbal, profoundly affected children, there is the ongoing experience of mourning. It rises and falls, and it doesn't take away the beauty we see in our sons and daughters, nor does it negate the powerful love we feel for them.

In the book, she writes, "To cope with Kat, I have sought out those people like Rita and Linda Orona, who loved Katherine as she was and took comfort from her. Those who held her close and looked directly in her eyes. Those who felt no embarrassment, but understood the peace of her presence."

Those words spoke to me. The book is a wonderful read for parents of children with disabilities, as well as anyone interested in the power of love.
Carolyn Murray
danielsgift.com

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Honesty isn't always the best policy., January 15, 2008

By 

Julia Beckwith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Katherine: A Mother's Journey to Acceptance (Paperback)

Yes, the author is honest, to the point of heartbreak. I really disliked this book, and it just broke my heart how Katherine was treated. It seems as though the author was very self absorbed and couldn't accept Katherine for who she is. I too have a non-verbal, non-ambulatory daughter, so I understand how it feels, I live it.

What I didn't understand was the author's several trips and conferences and most of all the family trips and vacations and then they would leave Katherine at HOME with a caregiver so they didn't have to deal with her. I also couldn't wrap my head around the Grandparents totally ignoring Katherine and the Author allowing them to treat her so shabby. There was a point in the book where the family leaves to go stay at the Grandparents and when they are leaving Katherine is crying, but they go without her anyway!

The author went on and on about HER grief and how she needed the trips etc...but what about Katherine? Just because a person can't talk doesn't mean they can't feel. The author made it seem as though just because she kept Katherine at home that was better than putting her into a care home, yet she was ignored in the home! She wrote about her younger daughter paying more attention to Katherine than she as a Mother did, and how the daughter's felt bad that Katherine was left alone in her room and the times they went away without her.

The only redeeming thing was the end when Katherine has a caretaker that takes her on all kinds of trips and spends so much time with her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Same book verbatim as Grief Dancers except last chapter, February 7, 2011

By 

MP - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keeping Katherine: A Mother's Journey to Acceptance (Paperback)

I ordered this book thinking it was a sequel to Grief Dancers, but was disappointed to learn I just paid for the same book with a different title. Only the last chapter about Katherine's life as an adult was added. Being the mother of a severely disabled daughter who is now fifteen I found it sad that Elizabeth doesn't seem to have any religion or faith, at least none that was mentioned when talking about her daughter. My child was so much more fragile, as an infant and toddler, and the only thing that sustained me was my faith and belief that my daughter, also named Kathryn, was a blessing from God and her life was every bit as precious and valuable as my other three children.