QUIETING THE CLOCK: MEMOIR OF A GIRL FACING DEATH AND CHASING FREEDOM

by Stephanie Romer

In 1985 a girl born and raised in Dayton, Ohio was born with a terminal heart condition, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a form of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD). Her memoir takes you through many years of childhood abuse and navigating her way through a life of depression, debilitating anxiety, and an uncontrollable rage that she fought through on her own. She spends the first fourteen years of her life going through many phases, always hiding her lives of being a "sick girl" to being an "abused girl" and more, behind many masks.

338 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kristy Stallard · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book about the struggles of living with a chronic heart condition and trying to make it through life as a child. This is so well written and shows the struggles, pain, and how no one truly knows what someone else is going through. I felt every emotion while reading this book. I look forward to the second book.

[Suzanne Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible emotional roller-coaster. While some of the events make you truly sick, you are quickly reminded how TOUGH, resilient, and brave Stephanie is. Great read and amazing story of courage!!!

[Freddy Coutant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephanie Romer is one of the oldest living people born with half a heart. Her book is about growing up with a rare and terminal heart condition and always being reminded that she wouldn't live long. Given an expiration date, she lived with the constant fear of death always lurking in her mind. She talks about living in a world not meant for disabled people. One of her stories about a "screaming boy" is especially terrifying and leaves you with a new perspective on what she refers to as "the hospital life," and how traumatic it can be for a 3 year old.

Through the conditioning she received from doctors, and always complying with their orders to take off her clothes and lie down, she illuminates how that made her especially vulnerable to grooming and abuse from a trusted neighborhood predator. Her young life was marked by a constant urgency to live or to die, and she chose the fight to survive. Hers is a story of struggle and survival and turning it into strength and resilience.

It is not always an easy read because of the difficult content but the journey is worth it. I can not recommend it enough. This book was a rollercoaster. It takes a supremely talented author to make you cry and laugh on the same page and she manages to do it throughout her book.

[Helen Nurse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me so much as a nurse & parent!! I really couldn't put it down and I'm not a fast book reader. Can't recommend this enough for doctors, nurses, all hospital staff and parents. Life changing read Stephanie. You are doing amazing things in the world. Keep teaching. Overall, I now see things in patients and my children I never would have noticed. My patients have already treated me differently just in the little ways I am doing things differently because of Stephanie and her book. Hope there is a second one!

[Chloe Skinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️

[Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10 (Exceptional)

[Mariagrace Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciated this book since I dealt with this complex CHD in my family.