Father, Daughter, and God: A Great Team

(New York, NY)—The modern father-daughter relationship as explored through the painful reality of a terminal illness is vividly captured in the new inspirational and spiritual book “A New View of an Old Horizon” by Dena Bedsole.
In her book, Ms. Bedsole describes how her life had been pretty close to perfect: She married a wonderful man, and had two beautiful kids and a successful career in medicine. But when her beloved father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her family was thrown into a year-long nightmare of surgeries, chemotherapy, and paralyzing fear. As Dena struggled to hold it together, she found that with God’s love she could survive the loss of her dad and emerge even stronger than before.
“God was the only thing that got me through my father’s sickness and eventually his death,” says Ms. Bedsole. “God gave me enormous power to go on and stay strong. During my painful journey, I experienced many small blessings and answered prayers that gave me hope and helped me not to give up.”

“A New View of an Old Horizon” deals with several issues that are of relevance to today’s readers:

* How Dena had to step up and really be an adult for the first time in her life. Even though she was already a wife and mother, she had continued to lean heavily on her dad for emotional support. He was her go-to guy, and when he got sick she was thrust into his role as the head of the family. She was also trying to be a wife to her husband and a mother to her very young children, and keep her job as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. She was overwhelmed and exhausted but tried to be strong for everyone. At night, when she was alone, she often collapsed on the floor of her kitchen and sobbed for hours, but then somehow found the strength and courage to get up to face whatever came the next day.

* How Dena coped with the twenty-first-century medical roller coaster. Her dad went from being an active, seemingly healthy person to being misdiagnosed with cancer of the bile duct to being correctly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer—essentially a death sentence—all in the space of two weeks. Dena describes the medical procedures in detail and discusses how cancer completely decimated her family. Essentially she lost her father the day he was diagnosed. From that point on, he was reduced to a shell of his former self, all the joy just gone out of his life. This was true even during the five or so months when medical experts professed him to be cancer free—his blood work and scans were normal, yet he still felt sick. When the cancer came back, it had spread throughout his body. He was dead a few weeks later.

* How Dena came to a deeper understanding of faith and God: Throughout this ordeal, God was the only thing that got her through. Slowly her relationship with God evolved until she had a daily relationship with Him rather than just going to church on Sundays. It was during her dad’s illness that she discovered so many small blessings and answered prayers, including her employer’s adjusting her schedule so she could help her parents, and friends and neighbors donating food to Dena’s parents and helping them to pay medical bills.
“Perhaps my greatest gift from my father was how he led me closer to an understanding of myself, my family, my friends, my neighbors, and my relationship with my higher power,” says Ms. Bedsole. “I can honestly say that God turned my life around.”