Kelly Kittel never questioned her Mayflower Society mantra—“Family is the most important thing”—until the day when her fifteen-month-old son is run over by her sixteen-year-old niece. Nine months later, Kittel’s doctor makes a terrible mistake during her subsequent pregnancy and she finds herself burying yet another baby. Caught up in the maelstrom of a malpractice lawsuit, Kittel and her husband battle not only the medical system, but their own relatives, in the courtroom. As their family tree begins to topple, the Kittels struggle to nourish the roots of their young family and find healing. Achingly raw and beautifully narrated, Breathe is a story of motherhood, grief, and family in the face of unspeakable tragedy and, ultimately, how she learns to breathe again.
Find Breathe on Goodreads. Available now for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Publication Date: May 14, 2014
“Many are the stories of a mother’s love and loss. Kelly Kittel’s is different: when her beloved niece killed Kittel’s toddler in the unimaginable accident of a moment, horror spread through her extended family like the cracks in a mirror … bad luck, bad luck, bad luck. Her warrior’s fight for the survival of that family is a witness to every one of us.”
– Jacquelyn Mitchard, author, The Deep End of the Ocean
“The only thing one has to do in the beginning of the journey through grief is to breathe and there are moments and even days when that seems optional. Breathe is a heroic story of one mother’s struggle to find the courage to continue to breathe after the deaths of her precious sons, Noah and later, of Jonah. Kelly Kittel learned to open her heart again and again and serves as a beacon of hope for those newly arrived in the valley of grief. Read it and then BREATHE deeply of the love she did not lose…”
– Darcie D. Sims, Ph.D., CHT, CT, GMS; Director, The American Grief Academy and Co-founder of Grief Inc.; Author 8 books including, Why are the Casseroles Always Tuna? and numerous DVD’s and CD’s on grief and bereavement.
“Kelly Kittel’s writing is beautiful and her story is both consuming and compelling. I couldn’t wait to read more and get back to it when I put it down. As a woman without children, she made me understand what motherhood is like. This is not just a book about religion, grief, or family issues, but a plain universal good story of faith. The title BREATHE says it all, and Kittel’s desire to continue to grow and raise her family will leave you breathless.”
– Amy Guglielmo, author, Touch the Art Series and founder of WhyNoKids.com – a child-free lifestyle blog
“A powerful story of how a family comes to terms with the unbelievable loss of one child, then another, and how love and hope knit them together.”
– Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers, Author Don’t Call Me Mother