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Just To Make You Smile: A Teenage Daughter's Reflections on Loving and Losing Her Father to ALS
“My dad was going to die. My sweet, loving, caring, and wonderful-in-every-way dad was going to leave me before he could watch my sister and me grow up.”
At the tender age of fifteen, Sarah Caldwell learned that her father had been diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and had only a short time left to live. In moments her life went from texting friends, going to gymnastics practice and family vacations by the sea to watching her father’s rapid, irreversible deterioration, a process that plunged her into deep depression.
But Jim Caldwell was a man whose indomitable spirit in the face of his suffering provided the ultimate inspiration for Sarah to transform her depression into a journey of healing and love. She learned to accept her and her father’s fate and became determined not to waste a moment of the time she had left with him. When her father passed away, leaving Sarah to face life without her beloved dad, she was determined again to continue on the path of hope and strength, making sense of her loss and honoring his life by helping raise awareness of ALS and money for desperately-needed research for a cure.
With a special foreword by former pro-football player Steve Gleason, Just To Make You Smile is the rare, honest, compassionate and bold account of a young adult’s process of watching a parent get ill and die, and the inspiration she hopes to impart by sharing her grieving process, deep inner growth and healing. By telling her story in its entirety, from the lowest depths of grief and depression to the heights of finding her inner strength, making a difference and carrying on her father’s fighting spirit, she hopes to touch the lives of others, especially kids with a sick parent, letting them know they are never alone on this difficult journey.
At the tender age of fifteen, Sarah Caldwell learned that her father had been diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and had only a short time left to live. In moments her life went from texting friends, going to gymnastics practice and family vacations by the sea to watching her father’s rapid, irreversible deterioration, a process that plunged her into deep depression.
But Jim Caldwell was a man whose indomitable spirit in the face of his suffering provided the ultimate inspiration for Sarah to transform her depression into a journey of healing and love. She learned to accept her and her father’s fate and became determined not to waste a moment of the time she had left with him. When her father passed away, leaving Sarah to face life without her beloved dad, she was determined again to continue on the path of hope and strength, making sense of her loss and honoring his life by helping raise awareness of ALS and money for desperately-needed research for a cure.
With a special foreword by former pro-football player Steve Gleason, Just To Make You Smile is the rare, honest, compassionate and bold account of a young adult’s process of watching a parent get ill and die, and the inspiration she hopes to impart by sharing her grieving process, deep inner growth and healing. By telling her story in its entirety, from the lowest depths of grief and depression to the heights of finding her inner strength, making a difference and carrying on her father’s fighting spirit, she hopes to touch the lives of others, especially kids with a sick parent, letting them know they are never alone on this difficult journey.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 29, 2015
6 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 2, 2016
Firstly I want to say that I'm honored to have been able to read Sarah's story for review purposes, but for me, reading her story became so much more. How she dealt with her dad dying of ALS is heartbreaking yet enlightening. Starting from the moment she found out about his diagnosis. Her story is a very emotional trek through her thoughts, feeling and emotions. The intensity had me feeling everything along with her. Her words are powerful in 'Not taking like for granted'. So true! In the fact the story was emotional and the pictures within the book has you seeing the reality even more, it broke me up a few days. I had to take several breaks and hadn't managed to finish the story as soon as I would have wished to.
I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to go through what Sarah did at only 15 years old and know that one of your parents is going to die and there's nothing you can do to stop it. In her story she proves her strength to be there for her dad and admits defeat in her most weakest moments.
Her story is a true inspiration to us all in regards to ALS. The clarity and clarification of the disease makes you want to reach out and make the difference. The 'Ice bucket challenge' was an excellent way and my whole family took the challenge.
Sarah, if you're reading this review? Kudos to you for writing this book along with my gratitude and thanks for sharing your story with the world.
Love, hugs and warmth to you and your family.
I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to go through what Sarah did at only 15 years old and know that one of your parents is going to die and there's nothing you can do to stop it. In her story she proves her strength to be there for her dad and admits defeat in her most weakest moments.
Her story is a true inspiration to us all in regards to ALS. The clarity and clarification of the disease makes you want to reach out and make the difference. The 'Ice bucket challenge' was an excellent way and my whole family took the challenge.
Sarah, if you're reading this review? Kudos to you for writing this book along with my gratitude and thanks for sharing your story with the world.
Love, hugs and warmth to you and your family.
December 8, 2015
This is an incredible book I would highly recommend. Sarah is an inspiration and her vulnerability in sharing her story is to be applauded.
November 10, 2020
Sarah, a little girl, witnesses how her father unluckily contracts a deadly illness and going to leave her. The whole book talks a lot about ALS, the worst kind of neurological disorder disease, letting us gain not a little knowledge over it. May I avail myself of this opportunity to thank Sarah about it here! Yeah, it is an extremely insidious disease that can attack anyone without mercy leaving his or her family and their loved ones totally helpless and hopeless.
Nevertheless, what Sarah in the book tells us is we can still do a lot only there is love and reason. In the book, we can witness how Sarah at the age of sixteen faces the brutal reality of admitting her father being sick and dealing with her emotion changing in watching him get worse and worse day by day ruthlessly. It is impressive to see how Sarah go from totally denial to acceptance with tears and struggles, and how the dark moments in her juvenile stage of life forcibly turning her into a mature person and at last, how those dark moments awesomely turning into moments of growth as a result.
In the book, Sarah offers us not a little interesting preaching, and I would like to quote some here. Hump Day is Wednesday; three sorries can only be seen as real sorry; be careful what you wish for (I like it most); new normal (really real, we always have); five stages of grief; everything does not happen for a reason (sarcastic enough); and she has, many times, made a point of reciting her father’s maxim for life to alert herself and us, it is 'be happy, be nice and keep trekking'. Besides these, Ice Bucket Challenge is mentioned as a reminder of the disease as well. Yeah, we should never forget this sensational episode.
Sarah, you never know how much I want to tell you that my dad died of a fatal illness in the same year as your dad was, and coincidentally, I have also written him a memoir. The difference is my dad could not in his life get as much love as your dad did, turning out to be my lifetime regret. Sarah, you are amazing indeed! I would like to recommend the book to everyone!
Nevertheless, what Sarah in the book tells us is we can still do a lot only there is love and reason. In the book, we can witness how Sarah at the age of sixteen faces the brutal reality of admitting her father being sick and dealing with her emotion changing in watching him get worse and worse day by day ruthlessly. It is impressive to see how Sarah go from totally denial to acceptance with tears and struggles, and how the dark moments in her juvenile stage of life forcibly turning her into a mature person and at last, how those dark moments awesomely turning into moments of growth as a result.
In the book, Sarah offers us not a little interesting preaching, and I would like to quote some here. Hump Day is Wednesday; three sorries can only be seen as real sorry; be careful what you wish for (I like it most); new normal (really real, we always have); five stages of grief; everything does not happen for a reason (sarcastic enough); and she has, many times, made a point of reciting her father’s maxim for life to alert herself and us, it is 'be happy, be nice and keep trekking'. Besides these, Ice Bucket Challenge is mentioned as a reminder of the disease as well. Yeah, we should never forget this sensational episode.
Sarah, you never know how much I want to tell you that my dad died of a fatal illness in the same year as your dad was, and coincidentally, I have also written him a memoir. The difference is my dad could not in his life get as much love as your dad did, turning out to be my lifetime regret. Sarah, you are amazing indeed! I would like to recommend the book to everyone!
March 26, 2022
With my amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the first thing that happened almost 2 years ago now, was speaking as if I were drunk. I wasn't. I initially did improve speech (articulating clearly but slow) but now I can no longer speak in an acceptable way. Then, a year later eating became problematic, I was biting my tongue and lips, and chewing became weak and less controlled. Soon after that some fingers started to fail me and things would drop out of my hands. Somewhere at that time bulbar ALS was diagnosed. The Rilutek (riluzole) did very little to help me. The medical team did even less. My decline was rapid and devastating.. We tried every shot available but nothing was working. There has been little if any progress in finding a reliable treatment, Our care provider introduced us to Kycuyu Health Clinic ALS/MND herbal treatment. The treatment is a miracle.i recovered significantly! Visit www. kycuyuhealthclinic. com
November 26, 2023
I stopped most of my ALS medications due to severe side effects and I started on ALS herbal treatments from Natural Herbs Center (Visit natural herbs centre. com), the treatment has made a very huge difference for me. My symptoms including weakness, difficulty swallowing and slurred speech disappeared after few months on the treatment. I am getting active again since starting this treatment.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews