I Haven't Talked about this Before
Louise Franklin Sheehy
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2000 Four-G Publishers
ISBN: 1885066449

The Story of a Family's Journey into the World of Cancer.

Come back with Louise Franklin Sheehy to the 1960s when she was newly married to Dan, who could trace his family back four generations in an old New England town that once had been The Shoe Capital of America.

On her 21st birthday, her first son, Joshua Kurt Franklin was born. & two years later, Jonathan. Then Louise & Dan decided to strike out on their own to “write their own history”, & so they moved to Florida, & set about living the quiet, satisfying American Dream.

For 5 memorable years the family made friends & enjoyed their unremarkable lives of holidays & adventures until that day Joshua cut himself on a playlot pipe, & upon his eyelid grew a sty that simply would not heal.

Too soon the doctor diagnosed the growth to be the dreaded Big C -- cancer. Too soon Joshua's entire eye had to be taken out. Too soon, this happy little boy in this happy little family had to come face to face with death.

I Haven't Talked about this Before is a slim little book between whose covers reposes in elegant, tender language all the heartache, fear & love a mother is heir to, when one of her children encounters the end to a short life well lived.

Hedy Schleifer's Foreword tells of how Louise Franklin Sheehy's story brought solace in her own life in turmoil from the same cancerous foe.

I Haven't Talked about this Before is a healing little book, originally written by the author to tell Joshua's story to her surviving children & theirs. Now she has told the world & we are the better for hearing her memories of the life & times of a brave soul & his family.
(05/30/04)

Rebecca