1.
Sue and her husband Ed lost their only two children,
Valerie and Stacy, to cancer. In Valerie’s memory,
the Goldsteins established, in 1976,
The Valerie Fund, an organization supporting
hospital-based medical outpatient centers for children
with cancer and blood disorders in New Jersey and
in New York City.
In 2009, the breast cancer center at The Cancer
Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), in collaboration
with the Goldsteins, was renamed in memory of Stacy.
It is now called the
Stacy Goldstein Breast Cancer Center at CINJ.
Sue has been an invited speaker at groups interested
in
The Valerie Fund activities and on topics
such as care-giving to families with children who
have cancer and other chronic illnesses.
“Suzann Goldstein has put her experiences into words
– well-written, heart-wrenching words – and one
day this nearly sacred manuscript will be published.
UNEXPECTED LIVES will serve as a beacon to those
who are in despair, a message that no matter what
happens, there is a faith and a meaning to life.”
Dave Klein, Owner-operator of E-GIANTS, a daily
on-line newsletter devoted to the New York Football
Giants
www.e-giants.net and author of THE GAME OF THEIR
LIVES, FOURTH DOWN, and HIT AND RUN.
“Losing
both one’s children to cancer would seem a subject
too heartrending to read, let alone to write about,
but Suzann Goldstein’s UNEXPECTED LIVES turns out
to be astonishingly uplifting. What she describes
is family love at its most powerful. While taking
the reader through the vividly recalled drama of
Valerie and Stacy’s lives, she evokes most clearly
what gave her and her husband their strength – the
kind of humor, caring, and courage we would all
wish to share – even in the best of times.”
Elaine Durbach is
Central Bureau Chief for the New Jersey Jewish News,
and the author of WITH MIXED FEELINGS and SOUTH
AFRICA: The Wild Realms.
“Suzann Goldstein’s writing is wonderful. So personal
and touching, while, at the same time, demonstrating
a self-reflecting twinkle in the eye, i.e., an awareness
of the absurdity of things . . .”
Rosalie Greenberg,
M.D., F.A.P.A., Assistant Professor of Clinical
Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians
and Surgeons. Author of BIPOLAR KIDS: Helping Your
Child Find Calm in the Mood Storm and co-producer
of the DVD, RESCUING CHILDHOOD: Understanding Bipolar
Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Dr. Greenberg
practices in Summit, New Jersey.
"UNEXPECTED LIVES is a story of personal tragedy:
a story sensitively told with poignant insights
and told by the one experiencing it first hand .
. . Presented as a series of memorable vignettes
and of memorable people met, this is a story where
the human spirit ultimately triumphs."
Paul Kiell, M.D. Author
of EXERCISE and GREAT MINDS and AMERICAN MILER:
The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham.
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