A True Hero

I recently completed the wonderful book called A Wondrous Journey about Dr. Martha Mac Guffie, who was a world-renowned plastic surgery in my home town. I had the pleasure of knowing her for many years. She was a motherless daughter-- and out-lived three of her children.... she took tragedy and turned it into motivation.

According to the liner notes: "A Wondrous Journey is a touching story that demonstrates what can occur when action is taken. When photographer Lynn Cluess-Manzione decides to take on a project to counter what certain media are portraying as “women worthy of our attention,” she finds herself on an incredible journey. On it, she travels through time with Dr. Martha Mac Guffie, then a retired surgeon and eighty-six year old humanitarian whose poignant story not only achieves the photographer’s mission to show that beauty is heart and soul deep, but also offers wonderful life lessons along the way. A Wondrous Journey is the chronicle of Dr. Mac Guffie's inspiring life story—one of triumph, loss, and profound compassion. It is also a journey of self-discovery for Manzione, which leads to what they both share on the pages of this small book with big lessons."

If you can find it in your library... read it! It will show how to overcome grief and help others while helping yourself. Not a day went by that she didn't remember the loss of her mother, suicide of her father and then the loss of three of her children. But she went on to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and adults here and in Africa.