Title: Lisa
Authors: Becky Rowe Hutchison & Sam Hutchison
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-7960-5321-0
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 136
Reviewed by: Ella Vincent

Read Book Review

Lisa is a moving and emotional memoir about a mother’s struggle to cope with the struggles of her developmentally disabled child, Lisa, in the 1970’s. Readers will be educated and enlightened by this memoir.

Lisa tells the story of Becky and Sam, a couple who are devastated by the diagnosis of their daughter, Lisa, with microcephaly, which led to her head being abnormally small. Lisa is also diagnosed with an acute case of cerebral palsy, athetoid quadriplegia, which severely limits her mobility. With Lisa fighting for life each day, Becky and Sam care for Lisa and find inner peace through love and faith. Hutchison writes with heartbreaking honesty about how Lisa’s medical maladies have affected her. Simple parenting tasks that people take for granted such as feeding were arduous tasks for Becky. She writes about how she self-medicated with drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of having to care for a special needs baby. Hutchison also writes with bracing honesty about how caring for and worrying about Lisa put a strain on her marriage to Sam. Despite the challenges of raising Lisa, Hutchison writes about the rare happy times and uplifting moments of raising Lisa. She writes about how supportive doctors, friends, and relatives shared her burdens and helped her cope with the overwhelming tasks of caring for Lisa in the hospital and in the home. She also writes about she found time for selfcare by being around horses and growing in her faith after living a drug-filled life. Hutchison also writes about how her eventual growth into her Christian faith helped her to find the blessings with Sam amid the tumultuous years of caring for Lisa. The book is also strengthened with Bible verses interspersed throughout the text.

Lisa would be best for parents of special needs children like A Mother’s Heart: Memoirs of a Special Needs Parent by Eichin Chang-Lim or Loving Lindsey: Raising a Child with Special Needs by Linda Atwell. Even though Hutchison wrote about raising Lisa in the 1970’s and uses language to describe Lisa that aren’t in use today, readers will relate to her timeless story about love for a child. The memoir would also be best for parents who are Christian or who are spiritual. Lisa is an inspirational memoir that will make readers cry and smile. Hutchison has written a text that shows that a mother’s love can survive any obstacle.