Debbie Bumstead

"Oh, My Redwood Heart!" Debbie Bumstead

The Joyful and Heartbreaking Marriage Between a Shy Woman and a Schizoaffective Man * About a man, about a woman, about a marriage, but also about mental illness, Schizoaffetive Disorder and Childhood Trauma, and the capacity for great love regardless, as told with joyful and heartbreaking truth through the memories and journals of a widow, as well as the words of the man himself, who once sang out in his sleep, "Oh, my redwood heart!" * From "Oh, My Redwood Heart!": Finally, as the summer came to a close, one evening Phil and I sat talking, and I told him, "I've never had anyone make love to me." He was surprised. Well, I was in my late 20s, I had the look of a casual hippy girl, and I wasn't religious like my Grandmother or his own family. Anyone would assume I was experienced. At least I hoped so, for this was a secret I'd never told anyone before. Then I asked Phil, "Would you make love to me?" * Histories of love, of thoughts and inventions, lives of others, from those you meet once to those you love forever, and one whole life of your own, all this and more fit into the universe of the brain...how preciously fragile the brain's universe and the human's life can be, nature-made from the beginning and subject to infinitesimal pluses and minuses of health and chance. So many elements go into the making of a life that it hurts to know. * Reviews: ", concise, direct, and effortlessly poetic..." "This luninous story of Phil and Debbie's marriage, about the joyful times as well as the struggles with mental illness, only confirms the fact: Love Transforms Lives! Read for enjoyment and enlightenment."