Review written for ClubReading.com by Sally
Dana’s Valley will give you a good understanding of how each member of a family is affected when one family member faces a serious illness-especially an extended illness. It will give you more compassion for families you know who are going through a similar situation.
There is more involved than the illness itself or even losing a family member. There is financial pressure; children losing the attention the parent(s) who become the caregiver for the one who is ill; children who are expected to take over responsibilities of the household, etc.
Dana’s illness was robbing us all. Not just Dana. Cancer was a spoiler, a taker of life even while one still lived. It was a dream robber . . . a home wrecker . . . a plan changer . . . a peace stealer . . . and, for some, it was a grave filler. I started to cry again. How could one disease have such power to destroy?
And then I thought of something Mom had said when Dana had been so sick before. She said that cancer was a faith builder. A magnet to draw one closer to God. Well, maybe for Mom-but not for me. I didn’t feel close to God at all. He seemed to be a long, long way off, if he really existed.
But my own deeper self denied that I doubted His existence. If he didn’t exist, how could I be so angry with him?