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My Glory Was I Had Such Friends: A Memoir
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Published:
HarperCollins 2017
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Description

In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant.

Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately.

A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one another—passed the baton of friendship, one to the next, and headed straight and strong into the battle to help save Amy's life.

Empowered by the kind of empathy that can only grow with age, these women, each knowing Amy from different stages of her life, banded together to provide her with something that medicine alone could not. Sleeping on a cot beside her bed, they rubbed her back and feet when the pain was unbearable, adorned her room with death-distracting decorations, and engaged in their "best talks ever." They saw the true measure of their friend's strength, and they each responded in kind.

My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is a tribute to these women and the intense hours they spent together—hours of heightened emotion and self-awareness, where everything was laid bare. Candid and heartrending, this once-in-a-lifetime story of connection and empathy is a powerful reminder of the ultimate importance of "showing up" for those we love.

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
06/27/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780062457486
ASIN:
B01LX35X5U
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Amy Silverstein. (2017). My Glory Was I Had Such Friends: A Memoir. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Amy Silverstein. 2017. My Glory Was I Had Such Friends: A Memoir. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Amy Silverstein, My Glory Was I Had Such Friends: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Amy Silverstein. My Glory Was I Had Such Friends: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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c3e4bdf4-0153-978d-465e-e4bd80e2e29a
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 17:27:39
Date Updated:
Oct 31, 2022 23:19:05
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Mar 24, 2024 08:51:08
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        Amy Silverstein is the author of Sick Girl, which won a "Books for a Better Life Award" and was a finalist for the Border's Original Voices Award. She earned her Juris Doctor at New York University School of Law, has served on the Board of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), and is an active speaker and writer on women's health issues and patient advocacy. She lives in New York.

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title
My Glory Was I Had Such Friends
fullDescription

In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant.

Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately.

A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one another—passed the baton of friendship, one to the next, and headed straight and strong into the battle to help save Amy's life.

Empowered by the kind of empathy that can only grow with age, these women, each knowing Amy from different stages of her life, banded together to provide her with something that medicine alone could not. Sleeping on a cot beside her bed, they rubbed her back and feet when the pain was unbearable, adorned her room with death-distracting decorations, and engaged in their "best talks ever." They saw the true measure of their friend's strength, and they each responded in kind.

My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is a tribute to these women and the intense hours they spent together—hours of heightened emotion and self-awareness, where everything was laid bare. Candid and heartrending, this once-in-a-lifetime story of connection and empathy is a powerful reminder of the ultimate importance of "showing up" for those we love.

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: CBS Sunday Morning
      • content:

        "Remarkable...My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is about the power of showing up for those you love, no matter the odds, no matter the distance." — CBS Sunday Morning

        "There's a special air around crisis that makes true intimacy possible in ways that daily life rarely does. Amy Silverstein has tapped into that moment with a cast of women who will make you pine for your nearest and dearest." — Kelly Corrigan, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Middle Place and Glitter and Glue

        "An intimate celebration of the power of compassion." — Kirkus Reviews

        "Skillful...A brave, transparent look at the harrowing battle of a heart-transplant patient who, through the support of her friends, conquers unthinkable odds." — Booklist

        "In this inspirational memoir of sickness and health, Silverstein pays tribute to the many women who put their lives on hold when she needed them most." — Real Simple

        "My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is, at its core, a book about friendship. Silverstein spares no words honestly describing the endless emotions she felt when friends from work, childhood and her community walked alongside her as she waited for a heart...As different as these friends were, they all had common goals that brought them together: a love for Amy and a desperate desire for her to get a new heart. As a result, friendships deepened in courage and perseverance, and a new understanding was born for what it means to say, 'I'm there'—and truly mean it." — Associated Press

        "An inspiring, heart-warming memoir...Amazing...You can wait for the movie or grab some hankies and start crying now." — Huffington Post

        "Read, be inspired, and then go call up your BFFs to tell 'em how much you love them." — Women's Health

        "Three hearts and two transplants later, Silverstein is all the proof you need that amazing things can happen when you show up for a friend." — Jason Duaine Hahn, People Magazine

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        May 1, 2017
        Waiting for a new heart, the author was buoyed by nine devoted friends.At the age of 25, Silverstein (Sick Girl, 2007) underwent a heart transplant, a grueling experience that she chronicled in her first memoir. The transplant was followed by other medical challenges: breast cancer, requiring a double mastectomy, and major valve surgery. At the age of 51, she learned that her transplanted heart was failing, and she needed another one. Because of an excessive quantity of antibodies resulting from the first transplant, Silverstein's likelihood of getting a donor match was only 14 percent, and only Cedars-Sinai, in Los Angeles, offered the highly specialized treatment she required. Besides confronting the physical ordeal of surgery, she worried that she would be isolated from her friends and family in New York. When her closest friends learned of her imminent move, though, they banded together in a generous, selfless show of support, creating a spreadsheet that ensured an "unbroken chain of presence." Her candid recounting of five months at Cedars-Sinai tautly conveys her pain, tension, and despair as she waited for a donor heart; and, crucial to her survival, the loyalty and love bestowed by the women who took turns sitting at her bedside, festooning her hospital room with photos and decorations, bearing witness to the frustrating and frightening realities of her profound illness, and easing her pain in whatever way they could. They also frankly chastised her about her irritability toward assorted medical personnel and her ever patient husband. More than once, Silverstein felt like giving up hope: the implantation of a pacemaker seemed more than she could bear. Resisting sedation for any procedure was a way she felt in control, but the pacemaker took over, riddling her with excruciating pain, increasing as her heart failed. The author takes her title from a poem by Yeats, one of many verses that she memorized to keep her spirits up. She amply testifies to the unfailing friends--her husband included--who never lost faith in her recovery. An intimate celebration of the power of compassion.

        COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        May 15, 2017
        Silverstein (Sick Girl, 2007) needs a new heart. She's been here before, 25 years ago, when she received a heart transplant that outlasted its 10-year estimate. A second transplant is trickier, and Silverstein is a match for only a small percentage of hearts. Told that Cedars-Sinai is her best chance, Amy and her husband leave their New York home to live in California while she awaits a new heart. When her friends learn of her situation, they divvy up all the days she will be out there, each agreeing to at least one and sometimes several three- or fournight stays so that she is never alone. Silverstein's skillful writing relates an increasingly brutal array of health issues as her heart starts to fail. Unafraid to show herself warts-and-all, she recounts both missteps caused by her outspoken personality and her own growth throughout the process. A brave, transparent look at the harrowing battle of a heart-transplant patient who, through the support of her friends, conquers unthinkable odds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

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shortDescription

In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant.

Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately.

A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one another—passed the baton of friendship, one...

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