My Journey with Jake: A Memoir of Parenting and Disability, 4th Edition

by Miriam Edelson

Overview

Jake is celebrating his tenth birthday. That’s a remarkable feat, because at birth he was given only three years to live. Miriam Edelson is his mother, a dedicated fighter for Jake and families in similar situations.

Edelson poses some tough questions: How do parents cope with a child who has special needs? Are we failing, as a society, to care for children with disabilities? Whatever happened to the federal government’s promise of a “Children’s Agenda”?

My Journey with Jake works on two levels. It’s a poignant memoir by a devoted mother, and a hard-hitting, well-researched look at health care for Canada’s children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781926662213
Publisher:	Between the Lines
Publication date:	04/03/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Miriam Edelson, and the story of her son Jake, have appeared across Canada in newspapers and magazines, and on television and CBC Radio. She works as a trade-union and disability-rights activist.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Maiden Voyage

2. Hard-wired for Kids

3. Searching for Answers

4. Jakey’s Hungry

5. Finding the Light

6. No Heroic Measures

7. Belleville or Bust

8. Jake at One Year Old

9. Trying Again

10. Sister and Brother

11. Families Fight Back

12. The Ethic of Care

13. Who Will Rock My Son?

14. Climbing the Stress Meter

15. Balance and Surrender

Resources for Parents

Editorial Reviews

"Miriam Edelson cuts through our natural distancing on this subject by taking readers on a surprising voyage of discovery. My Journey with Jake deftly draws you into an intense, private world of a couple's expectations, momentary joy at their firstborn and devastation as they realize their baby is not normal...This book provides such powerful revelations of the raw emotions of having a child with extraordinary needs that it seductively draws you into the larger political issues."
—Ellie Tesher, The Toronto Star

"A remarkable story. On her journey, Edelson travels roads, and achieves levels of awaresness, depths of fear, anger, love, that many of us will never know."
—Jim Coyle, The Toronto Star

"With an unflinching honesty, Edelson recalls the sorrow, bouts of near despair and the painful divorce that followed Jake's diagnosis—as well as her love and acceptance of her son. The book is also a tough-minded account of the battles Edelson has fought on behalf of Jake against the medical establishment and government funding cuts."
—Maclean's

From the Publisher