PHONE CALLS

In her debut memoir, a Texas woman recounts how her faith in God helped her through her husband’s job loss, the deaths of loved ones, and an attempt on her life.

Musgrave’s inspirational book is a brief but powerful account of a number of tragedies she suffered in a span of just six months. Three phone calls, in particular, changed her life. In the first, her business-executive husband told her that he’d just been let go from his job after 28 years. Then came a call from her sister, four months later, saying that their father had suddenly died of a heart attack. A few weeks later, she received what may have been the worst call of all: her daughter had committed suicide and left her parents a note saying that she wanted them to raise her 6-year-old son. As if that combination of circumstances wasn’t soul-crushing enough, the author was later shot in a robbery attempt outside a store and nearly lost her life; she went on to battle intense pain and extensive nerve damage from a bullet lodged in her spine. Remarkably, despite all this heartache, the book manages to be quite uplifting overall. For example, the author often returns to a theme of simple faith, including the literally childlike faith of her grandson, who saw her crying one day and said, “Why don’t you do like I do…I just call on Jesus to help me, and He always does.” She says that her decision to study the Bible was the best one of her life and explains how the Scriptures gave her hope for the future. She also writes about forgiving her shooter: “If this young man…would ask God to forgive him, he could be my next-door neighbor in heaven.” Although the book is clearly written and easy to understand, a few passages use religious language that may be unfamiliar to some readers, such as when she calls her trust in herself “my arm of flesh.” This story of her rich, full life doesn’t describe merely surviving these ordeals, though—she also tells of going on to sing for the governor of Texas, start a decorating business, and win the Ms. Mature Irving Pageant.

A positive story about the power of faith and forgiveness.