Love Last Minute

Just Finished-the interview

This interview was recorded on Thursday, April 28, 2016.

Rhonda Hayes Curtis speaks about acceptance, healing, gratitude, and her memoir Love At The Last Minute.

Watch our conversation here.

I "met" author, Rhonda Hayes Curtis, via Facebook when I saw a post about her newly published memoir, Love At The Last Minute. As soon as I saw the book's subtitle, A Mother's Journey to Courage, Acceptance, and Wisdom, I knew I needed to get this book into my hands asap. Also, I reached out to "friend" Rhonda and say, "hello." I introduced myself and explained that I was working with Jennie Nash (as Rhonda had) on my first memoir and that while my plot line is very different from Rhonda's, we share some deep universal themes. Rhonda kindly wrote me back and we started a correspondence. The rest, as they say, is history.

Here's the blurb from Rhonda's book:

Rhonda Hayes promised to give her thirty-five-year-old dying daughter, Sherry, anything she wanted. When Sherry requested that her mother sign up for a dating site, Rhonda was panic-struck. What would people think? Only nine months earlier, Rhonda's devoted husband, Greg, had died from cancer. Keeping her promise, Rhonda acquiesced to Sherry's wish. Together they completed a dating profile; moments before hitting SUBMIT, Rhonda added these words:

My daughter has terminal cancer and she is my life right now. Why would I be on a dating site? She is encouraging me to move on with my life and what a treat it would be if you had the opportunity to meet her. She is an angel.

Weeks later, Rhonda was immersed in two worlds: the exhilaration of falling in love and the despair of watching her daughter die.

Love At The Last Minute is a memoir about finding courage, acceptance, and love. It's also about how opening up to God's plan can truly bring miracles into your life.

Watch the interview here.

2 Comments

  1. What a wonderful interview! I really enjoyed watching this, Tracey. Rhonda is amazing. So many topics spoke to me: acceptance, putting good thoughts/deeds into the Universe, feeling grateful, and helping other people. And how these are all choices we can make.

    Spirituality… there are limitless variations of what this means to everyone. Rhonda spoke of how what happens is supposed to have happened, that there's a purpose to what happens even if we don't see it that way at first. I can't say I agree with this concept. I believe that bad stuff can just happen – – – no rhyme or reason, no higher power calling the shots. Nothing in the Universe that pulled the strings to cause Rhonda's husband and daughter to die. Nothing in the Universe that called for my husband to die.

    We each need to get through the rest of our lives with some kind of acceptance, to move toward that peace that we crave. How Rhonda views the reason for the loss of her loved ones is beautiful and it's okay, of course, that we have different views. Rhonda certainly deserves to be at peace with the tragedies she's experienced.

    The way I see it, my husband died because he had cancer, and no matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, I can't envision feeling this was how his life, my life and our children's lives were "supposed" to play out. However, I can envision a future where I will feel happy and fulfilled, and be able to say, "I worked on moving forward instead of being stuck in grief and self-pity for the rest of my life. I chose to find light, happiness and peace."

    But back to the interview in general… it was great to watch and I wish Rhonda the best in her book sales and in all her endeavors! She is a very strong person. Kudos to her.

  2. Thank you, Sue, for this beautiful and meaningful comment to our interview. Yes. You touched on several of the very reasons I wanted to do it and hoped it would help others: acceptance, letting go, spirituality. I certainly understand your view, and love that you can envision a future in which you feel happy and fulfilled. That's what we all want, isn't it? To find a way, in the face of tragedy and crisis, to not let the negative define us or our stories forever…Thanks for your comment.

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