Amazing Grace: Autobiography of a Survivor (Paperback)

by Grace Halloran (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
At eighteen this rebel street kid found herself in Federal prison for stealing a car. When a new program gave her the chance for an outside day job while still in prison, she took it...along with the opportunity for clandestine lovemaking in a cheap hotel with fellow prisoner.

She was caught, stripped of her privileges. She also was pregnant. That brought a parole and a devastating betrayal—the price of her freedom was giving up her unborn child for adoption.

Out of prison, she plunged into the heady world of radical antiwar politics, playing and partying through the wild world of the late sixties in San Francisco.

Until recurring headaches drove her to seek medical help. "Sorry, we can't find any tumors," they said. "However, you are going blind. Oh yes, it's incurable, irreversible, and hereditary." She was twenty-three.

She bore a second child, a son. He would probably go blind, too. That made her mad and changed her life. No, by God, he wouldn't go blind!

This is the true story of Grace Halloran, a survivor, a person who gets things done against all odds. She tells how she, a blind mother, raised her son. She recounts the step-by-step process of intuition and serendipity that led to her developing unorthodox therapies which finally reversed her irreversible disease and reversed it in others, as well! What? The official scientific/medical commuity was incensed. How dare she!

She tells about her growing reputation. She gave classes. People from all over the world came to her, and she went all over the world. Her stories of helping people to see again are poignant. One thing is clear: she loves these people. She cares, and passionately.

But when she founded the Center for Eye Health Education in northern California, that was too much for the scientific/medical community. Who did this woman think she was? Reversing the irreversible! Political pressure led to the cancellation of the $100,000 grant from the State of California. The Center folded. But Grace didn't.

Amazing Grace is the powerful story of one woman's courage and fierce determination to save her son and herself from blindness. Full of fun and gritty reality, it is an inspiring account of what determination in the face of overwhelming odds can do. It is also a story of personal triumph over helter-skelter beginnings, even to the final pages, when Grace discovers what happened to the daughter who was wrested from her and put up for adoption over twenty years before.

About the Author
Grace Halloran is an unstoppable woman!

Her early years, however, hardly foreshadowed what she was later to become. She was a military brat, an angry street-kid; rebellious, unsettled; a high-school dropout. By the time she reached eighteen, she was in Federal prison.

Today, she has become known internationally through her lecturers and seminars on eye health. Her unorthodox views and methods for improving eyesight have revolutionized the lives of people worldwide who are afflicted with the incurable, degenerative eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).

Two major events brought focus to Grace's adult life. One was when her newborn daughter was taken from her and put up for adoption, as a condition of her parole. The other was her being informed, in her early twenties, that she and her young son were going blind from RP. Though she was told nothing could be done--the disease was known to be irreversible--Grace simply didn't believe it.

Determined to do what everyone said was impossible, she undertook a long-range process of informal study and experiment which led to her celebrated program of eye health, improved vision for many to whom the medical community offered no hope, and the founding of her nonprofit Center for Eye Health Education in Northern California. Her inspiring new autobiography, Amazing Grace, has drawn widespread praise, including enthusiastic endorsement from Willie Brown, Speaker of the California Assembly (whom she helped with his career-threatening vision problems).

But in keeping with the flavor of her whole life, none of Grace's accomplishments came easily. (Much of Amazing Grace was written while she sat in front of a computer screen that displayed her words in huge, oversize type she could see with her reduced vision. While she was writing it, she took a fall down some stairs in a Los Angeles apartment and broke her back. And she has recently battled life-threatening health problems, apparently the result of her having been in Sweden lecturing when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew up.)

Grace Halloran lives near San Francisco. Her son is married and recently reenlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Her daughter is married and has two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: North Star Publications (MA) (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880823055
• ISBN-13: 978-1880823057
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #402,848 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It started me on a program of visual recovery., July 10, 1997

By A Customer

In September 1995, I was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a degenerative condition of the retina. Two independent retinal specialists diagnosed me with this condition. Both specialists told me that the disease typically leads to legal blindness over time and that there was no treatment for the disease.

Fortunately, on the day the doctor called me with the diagnosis, I found the book, Amazing Grace - Autobiography of a Survivor, at the Chicago Public Library. I was immediately intrigued by the idea that something could be done, and that people had gotten results. After contacting Grace, I attended a one-week therapy session, and experienced improvement in my eyesight in only one week of therapy.

I am haunted by the thought of how many people walk out of the doctor's office each day with the same diagnosis and same feeling of helplessness that I once felt. I was lucky to have found Grace's book, Amazing Grace - Autobiography of a Survivor, and to have recovered a great deal of my eyesight as a result of her work. For those who have not been so lucky, I hope that her book and work finds its way into their lives. Please feel free to share this letter with other people who are interested in her work. I would also be pleased speak to people and share my experience with them. Grace has become a great friend, and I will always be thankful for what she has meant to my life.

Incidentally, as I am finishing this letter, I just walked outside and looked at the stars in the sky. I looked directly at them and could see them just fine.

Eric Lickteig / Chicag

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiration for anyone stuggling with a visual impairment, July 16, 1997

By A Customer

Grace tell her life story with a lot of spirit and inspiration. From a turbulent adolescence where she served time in Federal prison to where she is now, Co-director of Maximum Eyes an Institute of Visual Healing. Dr. Halloran eloquently tells of her struggle with retinitus pigmentosa for herself as well as her fears for her son. Anyone with a visual impairment will be able to relate to her pains, her joys and be inspired