A Surrey mom who shared a “raw and tender recount of what it is to be a mother to a medically complex child” was celebrated this month at an awards event in Whistler.
Laesa Faith Kim’s Can’t Breathe, won the Whistler Independent Book Awards (WIBA) Non-Fiction category, a news release states.
The memoir “takes the reader through oceans of pain and tragedy smattered with streams of joy,” notes a review cited in the Oct. 19 release.
“This beautifully articulate story invites the reader to examine how personal devastation has the ability to strengthen or destroy – to build up or tear down… Shattered hope spreads like sunshine through these pages.”
Kim’s daughter Evelyn, 4, was born two months premature, with a congenital heart defect and Pierre Robin Sequence, a condition that causes craniofacial abnormalities.
Her family’s story was shared by Black Press Media in August, in connection with the BC Children’s Hospital Dream Lottery. It detailed how Evelyn underwent jaw surgery and a tracheotomy in efforts to help her breathe on her own; how she had open-heart surgery shortly before her first birthday; and, how she has grown into a happy and healthy pre-schooler.
READ MORE: Family finds strong sense of community at BC Children’s Hospital
While Kim’s book, the release states, is “very much her own intimate experiences, her story runs parallel to her daughter’s tumultuous first couple years of life.”
“Kim has found a way to display with candid honesty the fears and hopes families like hers face each day, and their ability to press on.”
On her website, Kim describes herself as “a wife, mother, student of life and an advocate of sharing our human experiences.”
She has been married for nine years to her high school sweetheart, James, and Evelyn is the younger of the couple’s two children. They also have a son, Noah.
The WIBA winners were announced Oct. 15, as part of the Whistler Writers Festival, which was held virtually. The winners were then invited to participate in a festival panel the following morning with authors David A. Robertson, Janie Brown and Rosemary Keevil, where similar themes of hope and strategies for sharing deeply personal experiences were discussed.
tholmes@peacearchnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter