What do you think?
Rate this book
The Last Ordinary Hour: Living life now that nothing will ever be the same.
Whether your world has been shattered by an untimely death, unfair diagnosis or unexpected disaster, this inspirational true story will help you live wholeheartedly even after life breaks your heart.
On February 22, 2013, Kathy Izard’s world was shattered when her healthy husband, Charlie, suffered a catastrophic heart attack. Although he was miraculously still alive, there could be no return to normal living after doctors diagnosed the cause to be an incurable Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). Living with an exceedingly rare condition and facing the unfathomable prospect of life as a young widow, Kathy had to learn to accept the radical uncertainty that life often brings completely without warning.
Through heart-pounding and heart-warming storytelling, Kathy recounts how she and Charlie navigated numerous cardiac crises using wisdom gained from both science and faith. Combining practical medical advice and inspiring spiritual enlightenment with her endearing vulnerability and perceptive insight, Kathy shows you how to find, cling to, and even strengthen your faith in the midst of a crisis that has left you reeling.
The Last Ordinary Hour is not a book about dying. This is a story about living.
"This is a searing and ultimately beautiful story of Kathy Izard’s years-long pilgrimage on the knife edge of time and eternity. It speaks to all who want to find a path of faith, to a life worth living, and a love worth living with."
Leighton Ford , Founding President, Leighton Ford Ministries, author of The Attentive Life , The Power of Story and many other titles
"The Last Ordinary Hour is a must read for those who have suffered tragedy and loss, for those who seek to deepen spiritual life, and also for readers who simply long for a book you just can't put down."
Katherine Olivetti, M., MSSW , Author, The Guided Dream Journal
“In reading Kathy Izard‘s The Last Ordinary Hour , I frequently found myself looking up to see if the earth had shifted or just my way of thinking. The author’s prose is fierce and unflinching.”
Leslie Hooton , author of Before Anyone Else and The Secret of Rainy Days
"This beautiful, compelling book is a powerful love story and an astute exploration of what it means to have faith when the future is entirely uncertain."
Kate H. Rademacher , author of Reclaiming Rest and Their Faces Shone.
"Honest and open, Kathy Izard has penned a gift to anyone wondering how to journey on and fully love and embrace a life they never planned or imaged. . . The Last Ordinary Hour is a book I’ll read and reread. It’s a book I didn’t know I was waiting for."
Niki Hardy . Author of Breathe Again , host of the podcast Chemo Chair Prayers and Trusting God Through Cancer Summit
“Reading The Last Ordinary Hour feels like listening to that friend who trusts you with her deepest secrets.”
Judy Seldin-Cohen , author of Recharging Judaism
“This deeply moving story describes Kathy's journey through shock, recovery, and healing into thriving-- It is an incredible read that I could not put down.”
Brian Allain , Founder of Writing for your Life and Compassionate Christianity
"This book will stop and start your heart several times. Not because it is scary but because it is sacred."
Reverend Lisa Saunders , author, Even at the Grave
On February 22, 2013, Kathy Izard’s world was shattered when her healthy husband, Charlie, suffered a catastrophic heart attack. Although he was miraculously still alive, there could be no return to normal living after doctors diagnosed the cause to be an incurable Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). Living with an exceedingly rare condition and facing the unfathomable prospect of life as a young widow, Kathy had to learn to accept the radical uncertainty that life often brings completely without warning.
Through heart-pounding and heart-warming storytelling, Kathy recounts how she and Charlie navigated numerous cardiac crises using wisdom gained from both science and faith. Combining practical medical advice and inspiring spiritual enlightenment with her endearing vulnerability and perceptive insight, Kathy shows you how to find, cling to, and even strengthen your faith in the midst of a crisis that has left you reeling.
The Last Ordinary Hour is not a book about dying. This is a story about living.
"This is a searing and ultimately beautiful story of Kathy Izard’s years-long pilgrimage on the knife edge of time and eternity. It speaks to all who want to find a path of faith, to a life worth living, and a love worth living with."
Leighton Ford , Founding President, Leighton Ford Ministries, author of The Attentive Life , The Power of Story and many other titles
"The Last Ordinary Hour is a must read for those who have suffered tragedy and loss, for those who seek to deepen spiritual life, and also for readers who simply long for a book you just can't put down."
Katherine Olivetti, M., MSSW , Author, The Guided Dream Journal
“In reading Kathy Izard‘s The Last Ordinary Hour , I frequently found myself looking up to see if the earth had shifted or just my way of thinking. The author’s prose is fierce and unflinching.”
Leslie Hooton , author of Before Anyone Else and The Secret of Rainy Days
"This beautiful, compelling book is a powerful love story and an astute exploration of what it means to have faith when the future is entirely uncertain."
Kate H. Rademacher , author of Reclaiming Rest and Their Faces Shone.
"Honest and open, Kathy Izard has penned a gift to anyone wondering how to journey on and fully love and embrace a life they never planned or imaged. . . The Last Ordinary Hour is a book I’ll read and reread. It’s a book I didn’t know I was waiting for."
Niki Hardy . Author of Breathe Again , host of the podcast Chemo Chair Prayers and Trusting God Through Cancer Summit
“Reading The Last Ordinary Hour feels like listening to that friend who trusts you with her deepest secrets.”
Judy Seldin-Cohen , author of Recharging Judaism
“This deeply moving story describes Kathy's journey through shock, recovery, and healing into thriving-- It is an incredible read that I could not put down.”
Brian Allain , Founder of Writing for your Life and Compassionate Christianity
"This book will stop and start your heart several times. Not because it is scary but because it is sacred."
Reverend Lisa Saunders , author, Even at the Grave
230 pages, Paperback
Published April 13, 2021
12 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Izard
11 books47 followersI grew up a little off the grid in El Paso, Texas. My father always believed my sisters and I could change the world. I don't know that I really believed him, but his message imprinted on me. I became a Longhorn (University of Texas at Austin) graduating with a B.S. in Advertising and took my first job out of college in Charlotte, N.C. where I have lived most of the last thirty years. Being an art director for ad agencies meant long hours so I started my own graphic design business in order to be home for carpools and naptime for my four daughters. While I loved helping clients and nonprofits communicate their mission, I kept feeling I was missing my own.
I was forty-four with a great family, a business, but no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Denver Moore, a formerly homeless man turned best—selling author of Same Kind of Different As Me, changed all that in 2007. On a tour of the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte where I volunteered, Denver very memorably pointed out to me that while I was helping the homeless by serving soup, the one thing a homeless person actually really needs is a home. Denver put me on the spot and wanted to know if I would do something about that. In a complete moment of guilt and insanity, I promised him I would.
Two months later, I closed my design business to join the staff of the Urban Ministry Center as the first director of Homeless to Homes, developing Charlotte's only Housing First program for the chronically homeless. That startup program turned into a $10,000,000 capital campaign to build an apartment complex named, in part, for the man who inspired it, Moore Place. With the experience of building for the homeless, I have spent most of the past two years working on another project (HopeWay) which will be Charlotte's first nonprofit residential mental health treatment center opening later this year. My path over the last ten years with those two projects involved so much coincidence, serendipity, and God-incidence that I finally wrote it all down in The Hundred Story Home: A Journey of Homelessness, Hope and Healing. In my book and on this website, I want to encourage you if you are restless for purpose to have courage to listen to what's calling you—whatever it is, big or small. And especially, no matter how crazy it feels! I think each of us has something we are meant to do and as my dad always told me: You can do anything, really anything.
Today, I live in Charlotte with my husband, Charlie, who listens patiently to all my crazy ideas. My four amazing daughters, Lauren, Kailey, Emma, and Maddie, encourage me to keep busy trying to change the world so I don't worry about changing them. And my black lab, Dexter, keeps me sane, taking walks every day and showing me the truest example of lovin' life.
I was forty-four with a great family, a business, but no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Denver Moore, a formerly homeless man turned best—selling author of Same Kind of Different As Me, changed all that in 2007. On a tour of the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte where I volunteered, Denver very memorably pointed out to me that while I was helping the homeless by serving soup, the one thing a homeless person actually really needs is a home. Denver put me on the spot and wanted to know if I would do something about that. In a complete moment of guilt and insanity, I promised him I would.
Two months later, I closed my design business to join the staff of the Urban Ministry Center as the first director of Homeless to Homes, developing Charlotte's only Housing First program for the chronically homeless. That startup program turned into a $10,000,000 capital campaign to build an apartment complex named, in part, for the man who inspired it, Moore Place. With the experience of building for the homeless, I have spent most of the past two years working on another project (HopeWay) which will be Charlotte's first nonprofit residential mental health treatment center opening later this year. My path over the last ten years with those two projects involved so much coincidence, serendipity, and God-incidence that I finally wrote it all down in The Hundred Story Home: A Journey of Homelessness, Hope and Healing. In my book and on this website, I want to encourage you if you are restless for purpose to have courage to listen to what's calling you—whatever it is, big or small. And especially, no matter how crazy it feels! I think each of us has something we are meant to do and as my dad always told me: You can do anything, really anything.
Today, I live in Charlotte with my husband, Charlie, who listens patiently to all my crazy ideas. My four amazing daughters, Lauren, Kailey, Emma, and Maddie, encourage me to keep busy trying to change the world so I don't worry about changing them. And my black lab, Dexter, keeps me sane, taking walks every day and showing me the truest example of lovin' life.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 10, 2021
I have been riveted by this story for the last 24 hours and can assure you this is a one of a kind memoir. I had heard of the “widows artery” which is almost always a fatal heart attack in men but had no idea that survival meant that you spent the rest of your life wondering if this is your last day. This is told mainly from Kathy’s perspective as the wife but does include Charlie’s in a more private way. From their “love at first sight”meeting and marriage in their 20’s to their 4 daughters, careers, caring for parents to two very rare medical diagnoses, (SCAD and sarcoidosis) Kathy tells how they have navigated through very challenging days. I met Kathy when she published her first book in 2018 (The Hundred Story Home) and I would never have guessed the fears she carried with her every day. This book gives the advice “ live every day like it’s your last” a whole new perspective. Through intense self searching and incredible faith she and Charlie have learned how to feel blessed for all the time they have been given and not be consumed by when it might end. Others describe the book as so deeply moving and honest, you will feel like your best friend is talking to you. Kathy is an extraordinary gift! She and one of her daughters created Women/Faith & Story which is a wonderful resource for women seeking direction. The bibliography of the many books she has read and quoted from throughout the story is priceless. A must read.
May 10, 2021
I couldn't put The Last Ordinary Hour down. Kathy's story resonated so deeply with me and I am ever so grateful for her courage in sharing the light and the dark that our lives can behold. Indeed we can't have one without the other. Kathy's words are truly part of the divine current of grace that she so eloquently describes, "The kind of faith where I have witnessed that there is a divine current of grace running through this world connecting us to each other and healing us all." If you long for inspiration, encouragement, authenticity and concrete ways to incorporate spirituality and faith into your life, this powerful story will do it for you! Prepare for your heart to be moved.
February 4, 2025
I loved this book. It is a unique take on a memoir that guides others through rare diseases and life threatening conditions. As someone who experienced SCAD as well, this articulates the associated feelings and fears exactly how I experienced them as well.
May 23, 2021
For some of us, our last ordinary hour began in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit. For author, Kathy Izard, her last ordinary hour began in February of 2013 when her husband, Charlie, was diagnosed with a rare heart disease. This beautifully written and very personal story travels over the next 7 years of their medical and spiritual journeys. It spoke to me as I followed Kathy and Charlie learning to live life in new ways and beginning to appreciate their “canopy of blessings and grace”. While I flew through this book in 2 days, I reread and savored many lines, marked sections and quotes, and researched some of the writings and music that Kathy referred to. I will go back to this inspirational book again to rethink all that was written here. As Kathy came to realize, when we face suffering, “we must find a way not only to rise, but to remain standing,” for there are “no ordinary hours” and “each breath is sacred and each hour is a gift”.
May 11, 2021
This beautifully written book shares the harrowing and ultimately hopeful story of living with an incurable and life threatening set of medical conditions of the person you most love. Kathy’s intellectual journey to try to understand how to live with fear and uncertainty was a crippling one. But her spiritual journey ultimately allowed her to find peace and a way to lead a deeply satisfying life. There are amazing lessons for anyone dealing with critical medical or other crippling issues or anyone on a spiritual journey. And most amazing to me was how much she accomplished during the 7 years covered in the book when very few people knew what was happening with her husband. If you haven’t already, be sure to also read her first book, The Hundred Story Home. This is a woman who has touched and improved the life of so many.
June 6, 2021
I was totally immersed in Kathy and Charlie's beautiful but difficult journey. Her story captured me with exquisite writing and life experiences showing their family love, courage, and vulnerability. Thank you Kathy for sharing openly your struggles and your joys. I am so glad you wrote this book, and I highly recommend it.
June 14, 2021
I loved everything about this book. Izard's eloquent writing style details her painful journey so her readers can understand the difference between "living" and "not dying."
January 17, 2023
Fabulous story that makes all of our lives richer. Absolute page turner.
“If I had to pick a moment, one moment where normal morphed into surreal, I would have to say it began with a turkey sandwich in a quaint New England cafe seven states away from where my husband, Charlie, and I call home.”
Life is … Beautiful. Fragile. Exquisite. Terrifying.
We never know when those moments are coming. We think we would do anything to turn back the clock. Go back to sleep and find it all just a bad dream. But for many moments when our life shifts from ordinary never to return again, in the end, it brings the greatest treasure.
Away for the weekend, after eating lunch in cozy cafe, they went back to their room. Charlie changed into his gym clothes and went to work out. Kathy stayed in the room to rest. Very soon, feeling uncharacteristically under the weather, Charlie returned, needing to lay down and a divine unction told Kathy to call for help.
Within hours they were in the hospital emergency room with Charlie’s life hanging in the balance.
The Last Ordinary Hour is the compelling story of the long journey face-to-face with one of life greatest fears. Losing the one dearest to us and the life we love; and our instinct to scramble, wrestle, plead and connive to find a way to control things we never can.
Human beings live in a state of subconscious assurance that we are in control. If we eat right, we will live a long life. Work hard and we will be successful. Be a good person and all our relationships will turn our right.
But what happens when the equation all of a sudden is turned on its head? When good people suffer in abusive relationships. Hard working people go bankrupt. Healthy people get sick?
Doctors, disappointment, not just one chronic, incurable, rare disease but two in short succession. How could lighting strike twice? Why to them? What could they do about it? How could they beat the odds? Ever go to sleep again without gripping fear that your partner may stop breathing in the middle of the night?
And how, when the medical community has done all they can and life hangs daily in the balance do you ever find joy or peace again?
That is exactly where Kathy and Charlie found themselves. This is their agonizing, profoundly hopeful and inspiring story of shock, pain, searching and surrender; coming in the end to a richer, more fulfilling place than they ever would have arrived without it.
Speaking to all of us about the preciousness of life, pointing us to the mystery of things too big for us to understand or control and the gift of surrender.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
“If I had to pick a moment, one moment where normal morphed into surreal, I would have to say it began with a turkey sandwich in a quaint New England cafe seven states away from where my husband, Charlie, and I call home.”
Life is … Beautiful. Fragile. Exquisite. Terrifying.
We never know when those moments are coming. We think we would do anything to turn back the clock. Go back to sleep and find it all just a bad dream. But for many moments when our life shifts from ordinary never to return again, in the end, it brings the greatest treasure.
Away for the weekend, after eating lunch in cozy cafe, they went back to their room. Charlie changed into his gym clothes and went to work out. Kathy stayed in the room to rest. Very soon, feeling uncharacteristically under the weather, Charlie returned, needing to lay down and a divine unction told Kathy to call for help.
Within hours they were in the hospital emergency room with Charlie’s life hanging in the balance.
The Last Ordinary Hour is the compelling story of the long journey face-to-face with one of life greatest fears. Losing the one dearest to us and the life we love; and our instinct to scramble, wrestle, plead and connive to find a way to control things we never can.
Human beings live in a state of subconscious assurance that we are in control. If we eat right, we will live a long life. Work hard and we will be successful. Be a good person and all our relationships will turn our right.
But what happens when the equation all of a sudden is turned on its head? When good people suffer in abusive relationships. Hard working people go bankrupt. Healthy people get sick?
Doctors, disappointment, not just one chronic, incurable, rare disease but two in short succession. How could lighting strike twice? Why to them? What could they do about it? How could they beat the odds? Ever go to sleep again without gripping fear that your partner may stop breathing in the middle of the night?
And how, when the medical community has done all they can and life hangs daily in the balance do you ever find joy or peace again?
That is exactly where Kathy and Charlie found themselves. This is their agonizing, profoundly hopeful and inspiring story of shock, pain, searching and surrender; coming in the end to a richer, more fulfilling place than they ever would have arrived without it.
Speaking to all of us about the preciousness of life, pointing us to the mystery of things too big for us to understand or control and the gift of surrender.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
January 16, 2022
This is just a beautiful book. The focus on a spiritual journey in the midst of a frightening and incurable medical diagnosis was fascinating and compelling. I listened to this book on Audible. Now I plan to re-listen to capture the words and thoughts that i so wanted to underline and highlight. Thank you Kathy for sharing of yourself in this way.
May 15, 2022
Kathy Izard writes an authentic, honest, and compelling memoir about how we can continue to live in the face of distress, difficulties, and challenges. As readers we witness how Kathy walked a journey she did not choose. And in this witnessing, she invites us all to consider how our experiences have the power to transform us.
June 6, 2021
A beautifully written true story that has stayed with me for days! Thank you Kathy for sharing this incredible journey of challenges, love, faith, and learning to live life to the fullest despite very difficult times. Your courage is inspiring! ❤️ Really loved this incredible book.
August 22, 2021
A remarkable story about strengthening one’s faith, surviving and thriving in the midst of a devastating medical diagnosis.
May 19, 2021
I have listened to more than 300 audiobooks and typically fiction over non-fiction, but this latest miracle journey that Kathy Izard takes us on has fortified me more than the "escape" I usually seek in novels. I was overwhelmed by this illuminating story of finding and keeping faith and of seeking JOY -- insisting on it! -- in life despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
This is a story of rare health setbacks, but it is universal through Kathy’s message of hope and gentle guidance through whatever labyrinth we face. It is more amazing to me when I understand the timeline of this trial and how it connects to her work shared in The Hundred Story Home. I am so glad Ginny Welsh narrated this one as well. It's the voice I've come to think of as Kathy's, despite having met her in person. I hear Ginny and see Kathy. That's the ultimate in audiobook narration for me.
This is a story of rare health setbacks, but it is universal through Kathy’s message of hope and gentle guidance through whatever labyrinth we face. It is more amazing to me when I understand the timeline of this trial and how it connects to her work shared in The Hundred Story Home. I am so glad Ginny Welsh narrated this one as well. It's the voice I've come to think of as Kathy's, despite having met her in person. I hear Ginny and see Kathy. That's the ultimate in audiobook narration for me.
May 16, 2021
I kept feeling that this book was written just for me. Although we have walked similar ground in the cardiac emergency world, it is the honest, vulnerable, and hope-filled writing that made me feel so connected to the author. Her way of weaving tragedy, insight, and everyday life into a sturdy strand of hope was refreshing . This is the book we all need after the past year that's left us forever changed.
May 25, 2021
What a great book. Simply put.
However, as you read the book, don’t just wait for the expected ending of black and white words... instead expect a colorful, rich story of life and growth. I appreciate Kathy taking the risk to write this story and share it with us.
However, as you read the book, don’t just wait for the expected ending of black and white words... instead expect a colorful, rich story of life and growth. I appreciate Kathy taking the risk to write this story and share it with us.
July 16, 2021
Recommend by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Author brings faith into a life of fear. Practice Faith not Fear. A spiritual journey that we all can learn from and put into practice. A valuable resource in anyone’s library!
February 6, 2024
Excellent Honest and inspiring Highly reccommend
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews