Exacting Hope: Memoir of a Forgotten Child

By Jean Burch

As a three year old, Jeannie was hospitalized for a year and a half after being stricken with polio. Even worse, she was physically and emotionally abandoned by her own family. Upon returning home she endured physical and sexual abuse. However, she knew she would not allow herself to become a victim of her disability nor her family. At age ten, Jeannie, alone, had to make a horrendous decisionshe would become a candidate for a project. She returned to the hospital for more than six years to undergo eighteen operations, some of which were experimental. Although her physical body was well cared for, she was clearly neglected spiritually and emotionally. As a result she suffered severe sensory deprivation. More distressingly painful than the abandonment, abuse, and neglect, she had been forgotten. With the support of her lone-time physical therapist, her only friend, Pinky, and her insatiable desire to read, she found inner strength. Throughout childhood she maintained the Exacting Hope necessary to achieve her goalto be a normal independent adult.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1432784072
• ISBN13: 9781432784072
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"