Amy Silverstein

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.

A Memoir

My Glory Was I Had Such Friends

Sick Girl

“The hardcover publication of “Sick Girl” garnered tremendous attention, generated impressive sales, and ignited controversy. Both inspiring and provocative, reactions to the book ranged from inflammatory posts on a US News & World Report blog, to hundreds of letters from readers, to a full-page review in “People”. Amy’s force, candor, and her refusal to be the thankful patient from whom we expect undiluted gratitude for the medical treatments that have extended her life, have put her at the center of a debate on patient rights and the omnipotent power of doctors. At twenty-four, Amy was a typical type-A law student: smart, driven, and highly competitive. With a full course load and a budding romance, it seemed nothing could slow her down. Until her heart began to fail. Amy chronicles her harrowing medical journey from the first misdiagnosis to her astonishing recovery, which is made all the more dramatic by the romantic bedside courtship with her future husband, and her uncompromising desire to become a mother. In her remarkable book she presents a patient’s perspective with shocking honesty that allows the reader to live her nightmare from the inside an unforgettable experience that is both disturbing and utterly compelling.

Amy Silverstein

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