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 Tapestry:
The Journey of Laurel Lee
- A true story about a woman who lived,
even when she was dying.
Shortly before Laurel Lee died, she was talking
to an Oregonian newspaper reporter.
He had asked her, "What is it like,
knowing you are going to die?" Laurel
got that far away look in her eyes,
and then she smiled like only Laurel
smiled and said, "I've traveled to
50 countries, but I've never been
to heaven." And that is the attitude
Laurel Lee had about dying. I was
sitting across the room from her that
day, and I marveled at her faith.
In 1979, when Laurel was 29 years old, doctors
told her she was going to die. She
had Hodgkin's disease, was pregnant
with her third child, and her husband
decided to leave her. She was supposed
to die - fourth stage cancer. But
instead, a doctor sent a small hospital
journal (that Laurel had written)
to a big New York publisher. They
turned the journal and drawings into
a book, and CBS made it into a movie
called Walking Through the Fire.
Oh yes, and Laurel lived.
I met her once when we were both young, and
she was very sick. While I was sure
she forgot our meeting, it was one
I never did forget. Years past, and
I would hear reports about Laurel
Lee - becoming a successful writer,
traveling around the world with her
three children, teaching writing a
Christian college, and battling cancer
on and off, and I always thought,
"I wish I could have known her."
Then in the fall of 2003, two years after
we began Lighthouse Trails Publishing,
the phone rang one day. It was Laurel
Lee. "I've just been given three months
to live... would you publish my last
book?" She'd heard about our company,
and because we lived less than 50
miles apart, she took a chance and
called.
And that is how I came to know Laurel Lee.
For ten months (yes, she passed up
the doctor's predictions), I drove
out to her farm many times as we prepared
the book for publishing. In fact,
I became one of her primary caregivers
and ended up organizing several women
in her community to give her round
the clock care as she prepared for
her departure from this world. 
Two weeks after Tapestry was released,
Laurel went home to be with the Lord.
She had fought cancer for nearly thirty
years. Her book Tapestry is
her life story ... its a story of
a woman who learned how to live life
with joy and peace during affliction
and then learned how to die in grace.
For
more information about Laurel Lee
and her book.
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