but, most of all, for my
firstborn daughter, Francie,
who wouldn’t accept the end
Acknowledgments
This book would have been impossible without the help and friendship of the firefighters of Southside Station 6, in Madison, Wisconsin—especially Lt. Doug Rohn and Eric Winker, who amend their world every day and who opened that world to me. That is also true of burn surgeon Dr. Lee D. Faucher of the University of Wisconsin, who generously shared his wisdom, and anaplastologists Jane Bahor, of Duke University, and Suzanne Verma, of Baylor College of Dentistry, as well as Andrea Stevenson Won, who makes digital and physical models—all of whom do work that restores not only ears, noses, and fingers, but dignity. My dear friend Dr. Gay McManus Walker kept me honest in a presumptive medical world of tissue transplant and anti-rejection protocols, while Tanya Bolchen and her mom, Jean, led me through five terrible minutes of fire, in which a husband and father died but saved the two-year-old girl in his arms. Tanya’s fifteen-year fight to function as a person and a woman is gallantry itself. Christine Gralapp helped me understand the basics of an ancient and changing art—medical illustration. Shawn T. Mason, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins Burn Center, tried to take this author to the heroic and haunted places where he has spent his career—inside the emotions of burn patients. Friends and photographers John and Virginia Sutherland shared their experiences in making pictures in trauma settings.
My enduring gratitude goes to my editors, Kate Medina and Millicent Bennett, for giving me the green light to go to a fearful place of moral and medical controversy. Face transplant technology is not at the level of proficiency that it is for Sicily Coyne, in part because of the psychological aspects of donorship and recipients, but one day it will be, literally, a saving grace, most especially for people who are burned. Special thanks to Millicent for staying with me until I finally figured out that one scene—leaving me mystified that twenty lines could make such a huge difference. As before, the design and production team at Random House, especially production editor Vincent La Scala, made me look good, with consummate class.
All my children, but especially my firstborn daughter, Francie (who never accepts the easy answer), deserve my thanks for their patience and long thoughts. To my beloved best friends—Jane Gelfman, my agent, and Pamela English, my co-worker—I owe and give gladly my best love and unflinching loyalty, from this morning until the stars fall down.
—January 4, 2011, Madison, Wisconsin
ALSO BY JACQUELYN MITCHARD
FOR ADULTS
Cage of Stars
The Breakdown Lane
A Theory of Relativity
Christmas, Present
Twelve Times Blessed
The Most Wanted
The Rest of Us:
Dispatches from the Mother Ship
The Deep End of the Ocean
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Look Both Ways:
A Midnight Twins Novel
The Midnight Twins
All We Know of Heaven
Now You See Her
Ready, Set, School!
Rosalie, My Rosalie
Starring Prima!:
Baby Bat’s Lullaby
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JACQUELYN MITCHARD is the New York Times best-selling author of the first Oprah’s Book Club selection, The Deep End of the Ocean; No Time to Wave Goodbye; and fifteen other books for both adults and children. A former syndicated columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, she is a contributing editor for Parade, and her work has appeared in More, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, and Real Simple, among other publications. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and seven children.
www.jacquelynmitchard.com