SHAVERTOWN, Pa. — A Luzerne County mom turned author credits the pandemic with helping her publish her first book: a story of her son’s life.
Denise Cardell’s journey as a mom has not been an easy one.
Her son, Jeff, struggles with a severe seizure disorder that took a long time to diagnose.
“His doctor tried to do everything he could, and he would send him different places, the local doctor, we went to Johns Hopkins; we went a lot of different places," said Cardell of Shavertown.
Jeff is grown up now, still struggling with the disorder and other medical issues.
His mom said this past year has been hard on so many.
During the pandemic, she was not able to see Jeff much, so she started to journal about their life together.
One thing led to another, and Jeff’s Story is her journal published for all to read.
”I just thought I need some kind of therapeutic because I missed him so much because of COVID. I hadn’t seen him since March, and there was just for me to have to cope with it. I guess it was a coping mechanism; it really was."
Jeff is in his 40’s now and lives in a nursing home.
He has had COVID-19 this past year.
“He needs a lot of physical therapy because he was put in a lot of comas, medically induced comas in July of 2018, and came out pretty much paralyzed. He’ll say, 'I stay strong, Mom. I stay tough, and I’m fighting,' and that’s all we ask of him. To keep fighting.”
Cardell’s book is for sale on Amazon, and she said she has gotten a lot of wonderful feedback about it.
Her hope is that she helps people realize with love and support, anything is possible, even if it is hard.
“I thought, what do I have to lose? They said send your manuscript to this publisher, and I did. She wrote me back right away and said I love it; my husband loves you. You have to do this. It has to be out there. The truth of it is it is about Jeff’s epilepsy and everything he went through, but it also has touched people in different ways in just struggles with other things.”