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Room For Grace
Stage 4 cancer for her and a debilitating disease for her husband: life crashed down in an instant. Maureen Kenner found resilience, however, in the lessons she learned from her Special Ed students in Providence, RI. Her students lived with their hearts opened despite struggles of the highest magnitude. Through these students, Maureen gains courage, humor, and the strength of spirit to face her devastating realities, head on. Maureen’s oral history was captured by her son Daniel who tenderly wrought this book out of their recorded conversations. Through anecdotes and hard-earned lessons, Maureen tackles challenge after challenge and reframes daily struggles with a positive outlook allowing her to transcend and conquer mortal fears with dignity and room for grace.
214 pages, Paperback
Published October 2, 2018
2 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Kenner
2 books3 followersDaniel Kenner rocked out to Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” while other infants sang “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” A proud member of Actor’s Equity, SAG-AFTRA, and National Players Tour 60, Daniel was a Presidential Arts Scholar at George Washington University and Scholarship recipient at The British American Drama Academy. Directed the Washington D.C. premier of Sarah Kane’s Crave. Author of the manuscript, Roux. Winner of the Rhode Island Playwriting Festival for his World War II letters home drama, Fields of Sacrifice. Adapted Les Misérables for high school stages. www.Daniel-Kenner.com
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 2, 2018
This beautifully written story is a love letter to a dying parent and the children that double as caretaker, to a favorite teacher and the subtle lessons learned when you weren’t looking, to a friend without whom you could have never gotten past “that thing,” to a devoted couple and the unexpected absence you confront during the most extreme circumstances, to every educator whose devotion to their students is in every breath they take. It is a love letter to those with and without faith. It is a love letter to being present in the moment and to seeing each day as a triumph; you simply cannot know in real time the strength you will gain from individual and solitary experiences.
It is a reminder to walk through life “paying it forward;” as words and actions you give no thought to can alter the path a person follows.
Daniel and Maureen have woven an intricate story that will have you laughing, thinking, crying and hopeful. Never in my life have I wanted so badly to alter the inevitable end and will Buddy and Maureen to be healthy and among the living.
By reading and embracing this story, I too, hope to find my grace.
It is a reminder to walk through life “paying it forward;” as words and actions you give no thought to can alter the path a person follows.
Daniel and Maureen have woven an intricate story that will have you laughing, thinking, crying and hopeful. Never in my life have I wanted so badly to alter the inevitable end and will Buddy and Maureen to be healthy and among the living.
By reading and embracing this story, I too, hope to find my grace.
Read
August 8, 2018Room for Grace (Paperback October, 2018) is a gripping, intimate, and lyrical oral history account of family. The memoir is being championed by Ann Hood as a “book of hope and a celebration of life that sheds light on us all.” This is a heart-in-your-throat story with the nuance and emotional resonance of some of the best accounts on family. This book was wrought out of recorded conversations and captures our family’s unequivocal history-Maureen Kenner, an influential Special Education teacher and her resilience in battling stage 4 cancer. If the world could have cloned Maureen Kenner, it would doubtless have left out the cancer gene that took her life prematurely. But in no other respect would it have changed her; clone Maureen Kenner, and you would solve many of the ills of our education system.
October 4, 2018
An inspiring story that made me laugh, cry, smile and see (even the smallest of tulips on the rainy, cold days). An amazing aunt, mom, sister, friend, role model. Thank you for capturing and preserving their humor, tenacity, and grace. Losho
September 25, 2018
Room for Grace is the gripping story of special education teacher Maureen Kenner’s experience of being diagnosed with colon cancer shortly after her husband Buddy receives a devastating dementia diagnosis. Based on her recorded memoirs, the story is written by Maureen and Buddy’s son Daniel Kenner, and lovingly told from Maureen’s perspective.
The decidedly depressing subject matter surprisingly gives space to a hopeful story that demonstrates the commitment of lifelong partnership, a mother’s never-ending love and a teacher’s unwavering devotion to her students. In between anecdotes about students that Maureen collected from decades of teaching in Providence, Rhode Island, she tells the love story of her marriage, what it means to be a lifelong educator and how sometimes you see the brightest light at the end of the darkest tunnel.
Kenner has given readers a front row seat to the most painful and poignant time of his life, and the experience reminds us to hold our loved ones tight, give everything we can to our communities and enjoy the precious time we have on this earth.
The decidedly depressing subject matter surprisingly gives space to a hopeful story that demonstrates the commitment of lifelong partnership, a mother’s never-ending love and a teacher’s unwavering devotion to her students. In between anecdotes about students that Maureen collected from decades of teaching in Providence, Rhode Island, she tells the love story of her marriage, what it means to be a lifelong educator and how sometimes you see the brightest light at the end of the darkest tunnel.
Kenner has given readers a front row seat to the most painful and poignant time of his life, and the experience reminds us to hold our loved ones tight, give everything we can to our communities and enjoy the precious time we have on this earth.
October 3, 2018
“For the angels we all know”
This is how Room For Grace begins and looking through the eyes of Maureen Kenner, angels are all around us, even those who don’t first appear as angels.
Room For Grace is at once heart wrenching, inspiring, tragic, bursting with love and utterly beautiful. It is a book about Maureen Kenner and her lessons learned from her special education students in Providence Rhode Island while she contends with an impossible situation in her personal life. Daniel Kenner, Maureen’s son, captured her oral history and turned it into a gorgeously written memoir that is bound to have you crying at times and fist-pumping at others. This book is not to be missed. The lessons and beautifully written pages stayed in my mind and heart long after I finished.
This is how Room For Grace begins and looking through the eyes of Maureen Kenner, angels are all around us, even those who don’t first appear as angels.
Room For Grace is at once heart wrenching, inspiring, tragic, bursting with love and utterly beautiful. It is a book about Maureen Kenner and her lessons learned from her special education students in Providence Rhode Island while she contends with an impossible situation in her personal life. Daniel Kenner, Maureen’s son, captured her oral history and turned it into a gorgeously written memoir that is bound to have you crying at times and fist-pumping at others. This book is not to be missed. The lessons and beautifully written pages stayed in my mind and heart long after I finished.
October 1, 2018
With enough heart and humor to lift the poignant subject matter, Room for Grace is more than an illness memoir: it's a story of a family's strength in spite of oncoming hardships; the fear of losing control and the courage to fight that fear; and a unique point of view that consistently leaves you heartbroken yet hopeful. This memoir, told through the eyes and voice of the late Maureen Kenner and through the written words of her son, Daniel Kenner, is clearly the result of a painful yet beautifully honest collaboration between a dying mother and her dedicated son.
The thing I loved most about this book was how sincere it was in every lovely meditation and every bitter element of Maureen's process of loss. Although there are shining moments of hope and grace throughout the text, particularly during the parts that recall Maureen's time teaching, the narrative is never syrupy or falsely optimistic. Throughout Maureen's decline that runs parallel with her husband's progression through the stages of dementia, she must learn to cope with not only the loss of control over her own body's health and wellness, but also the loss of her lifelong partner and the support he normally would offer--if only he were able to.
The exploration of this topic is raw; neither Maureen nor her husband is able to support the other in the way they need most when they need it most. Because of this, Maureen feels the tension and weight of their plight, as does her son Daniel as he tries to fill the gaps and hold everything together for his parents. It is this honesty that I so loved, because it's clear that no matter how much you think you have accepted the end, the end is not always pretty. It brings anger and frustration, and no matter who you are, you are only human. And it will be hard. Even ugly. Maureen knows this and doesn't sugarcoat it.
Sprinkled throughout the text are what I view to be "teaching moments" where Maureen remembers instances when her students had to grow from the obstacles placed before them. Often, Maureen sets an example or finds a unique way of approaching her special ed. students so that they can confront challenges, solve their own problems, and accomplish their goals. But nearly equally as often, Maureen recalls these moments as a way of viewing their triumphs as a mirror, calling upon their accomplishments in order to challenge herself to behave in the same brave, positive way her students did. In this way, Maureen becomes as much a student as a teacher, and in reading her memoir, we become students as well.
As we each venture forward throughout life and are faced with these inevitable heart-rending moments, I believe we all need to think of Room for Grace and what we have learned from Maureen. I know I will.
The thing I loved most about this book was how sincere it was in every lovely meditation and every bitter element of Maureen's process of loss. Although there are shining moments of hope and grace throughout the text, particularly during the parts that recall Maureen's time teaching, the narrative is never syrupy or falsely optimistic. Throughout Maureen's decline that runs parallel with her husband's progression through the stages of dementia, she must learn to cope with not only the loss of control over her own body's health and wellness, but also the loss of her lifelong partner and the support he normally would offer--if only he were able to.
The exploration of this topic is raw; neither Maureen nor her husband is able to support the other in the way they need most when they need it most. Because of this, Maureen feels the tension and weight of their plight, as does her son Daniel as he tries to fill the gaps and hold everything together for his parents. It is this honesty that I so loved, because it's clear that no matter how much you think you have accepted the end, the end is not always pretty. It brings anger and frustration, and no matter who you are, you are only human. And it will be hard. Even ugly. Maureen knows this and doesn't sugarcoat it.
Sprinkled throughout the text are what I view to be "teaching moments" where Maureen remembers instances when her students had to grow from the obstacles placed before them. Often, Maureen sets an example or finds a unique way of approaching her special ed. students so that they can confront challenges, solve their own problems, and accomplish their goals. But nearly equally as often, Maureen recalls these moments as a way of viewing their triumphs as a mirror, calling upon their accomplishments in order to challenge herself to behave in the same brave, positive way her students did. In this way, Maureen becomes as much a student as a teacher, and in reading her memoir, we become students as well.
As we each venture forward throughout life and are faced with these inevitable heart-rending moments, I believe we all need to think of Room for Grace and what we have learned from Maureen. I know I will.
September 5, 2018
This was no what I thought it was going to be—a tearjerker, end of wonderful life story of a great teacher. Instead it is a blueprint about life! Living to a high standard in your personal and professional life. A blueprint for how to met the end with grace and humility. Yes, it is sad but also uplifting and well told. Read this and introduce yourself to Maureen and her family (wish that she had been your teacher in grade school) and think about a teacher that believed in you through thick and thin. Then contact them and thank them! Thank you #netgalley for the chance to read an ARC of #roomforgrace
October 2, 2018
Having myself lived through the unspeakable horror of what befell the Kenner family, I am extraordinarily qualified to weigh in on the love and courage that brought this book into being. Unlike a spectacular car crash that might have deprived Dan of his parents all at once, their illnesses played out over a period of a few years -- years that found Dan often putting aside his own life's aspirations to be there for his parents.
And when the end inevitably drew near, Dan and his mom, Maureen, somehow mustered what it took to lock themselves away in rooms -- rooms at hotels in Newport, Rhode Island, and in Bar Harbor, Maine -- and there, surrounded by astonishing beauty, they sat for days on end crafting this compelling story, a memoir of a tight-knit family, written in rooms filled with love, and with grace.
Why 4 stars and not 5? Dan and I argue a lot of sentence structure.
And when the end inevitably drew near, Dan and his mom, Maureen, somehow mustered what it took to lock themselves away in rooms -- rooms at hotels in Newport, Rhode Island, and in Bar Harbor, Maine -- and there, surrounded by astonishing beauty, they sat for days on end crafting this compelling story, a memoir of a tight-knit family, written in rooms filled with love, and with grace.
Why 4 stars and not 5? Dan and I argue a lot of sentence structure.
October 4, 2018
This story will have you smiling, crying, laughing, and wondering all at the same time. What a testimony of love, family, commitment, and living in the moment. What truly struck me, was the ability to continue to remain positive despite their lives crashing down on them. Maureen was the ultimate teacher, but not just a teacher in the classroom, she was truly a teacher of "life". You will feel it as you read this book.
October 2, 2018
An exceptional story about the beauty of life.
As a Hospice and Palliative Care physician, I will absolutely be providing this beautiful book to all of my patients and their families.
As a Hospice and Palliative Care physician, I will absolutely be providing this beautiful book to all of my patients and their families.
October 16, 2018
This memoir is so much more than an account of a mother's illness written by her son. It's a beautiful, heartfelt journey into all of the feelings that encompass losing a loved one. We experience their hope, fears, optimism, and strength despite the difficult situation they were facing. As parents, we feel like our children should never be put in the place to care for us; however, Maureen and her husband both find themselves in such a state that they can't fulfill taking care of one another. Their son, Daniel, steps up to take care of his ailing parents. Maureen's story will capture your heart. We truly need more teachers like her - well, people in general! She is encouraging when most of us would turn to hopelessness and give up. It's easy to get caught up in how everything is going wrong. This book is going to be one that I re-read several times throughout my life. It helps you find hope in all that your facing and gives you a new appreciation for what truly matters - family, friends, love, and life.
I received a complimentary copy of the book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
I received a complimentary copy of the book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
October 9, 2018
Maureen and Buddy were storytellers at heart and Room for Grace memorializes some of their best! These stories bring to life how important it is to stop and reflect on your days’ work because when you do, you will find there is a lot to be grateful for and there were traces of life lessons learned each day. The oral history turned memoir format allows for strong meditation on how special life's moments can be and despite significant sorrow, love will always win. That is what makes Room for Grace so special, love wins over frustration and pain in every chapter.
I highly recommend reading this book! Some of the sadness is potentially relatable, yet the real take away is learning how to reflect on life's journey through the eyes of a strong and uniquely brave woman who was adamant she would focus on the beauty in the world around her even when life's circumstances got increasingly more difficult.
I highly recommend reading this book! Some of the sadness is potentially relatable, yet the real take away is learning how to reflect on life's journey through the eyes of a strong and uniquely brave woman who was adamant she would focus on the beauty in the world around her even when life's circumstances got increasingly more difficult.
March 6, 2019
Inspirational story of a woman who dedicated her life to not just teaching children, but changing their lives. To making a lasting impact on them and their future. Every chapter is full of hope and positivity and lessons to be learned. Well written and organized. Even in the face of cancer and her husbands dementia, her strength is apparent and nothing short of admirable. Written by a son who had a rare chance not all kids have; to truly speak openly with their parents and learn who they are, besides “mom”. Although it’s obvious Maureen shaped much of the book and its stories herself. If a child only has one teacher who leaves this impact, and such a positive one; well, the world may be a different place!
November 4, 2018
An incredible story that pulled on my heart strings, made me cry, made me laugh, and made me think. A story filled with some of life’s greatest lessons, the importance of relationships, unbelievable true love and partnership and living out your passion. Recommend this book to all as a humble reminder to live your life and be kind.
October 8, 2018
The authors wrote an inspiring book that demonstrates how hope and grace can be found in the most unexpected places. I love how Maureen's students were able to help her discover both of these.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews