A Walk Through the Dark by Eva Piper

Eva Piper, a woman in her mid-30's, teaches first grade. Her husband, a youth pastor, plans to go to a conference and asks Eva to accompany him. Their plans change. He attends the conference by himself. On his return home, he has a wreck that changes their lives. (He tells his story in 90 Minutes in Heaven.)

Eva Piper allows us to walk with her through the hospitalization and treatment that her husband of 15 years undergoes. She doesn't understand all of what she sees while she awaits for her husband to improve.  One phase of his treatment was experimental and very painful.

One of the outcomes of Don’s accident was that Eva had to make decisions that she had always left to Don to make. When Don was scheduled to be released from the hospital, Eva had to look for another house to rent because the floor plan of where they had lived wouldn't accommodate a wheel chair with a leg extension. Their three children were with other families. The twin boys went home with Eva’s parents to a neighboring state. Their 12 year old daughter lived with a family from the church.

Eva had to go back to teaching her first grade class in order to have health insurance for the family. She had to be at school at 7:30 each morning. After she taught all day, she drove the one hour’s distance to the hospital and stayed there as late as she could, then drove home. Her colleagues graded papers for her and attended to the administrative tasks.

This is a book I would recommend to a pastor, a lay person heading a small encouragement group, a nursing student or a medical student. Eva shares honestly what it is like to go through something unexpected and prolonged.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishing free through their BookSneeze program. All they asked of me was an impartial review.