In When One Door Closes, educator and psychotherapist Terri Spahr Nelson collects the stories of fifty-three women facing pivotal moments in their lives, moments that illustrate the particular quality of decisions a woman must make over the course a life fully lived. The women represent an impressive array of backgrounds and life experience, and early on you’ll be assured that this is not a Chicken Soup for the Soul spin-off.
One woman learns she must carry her dead fetus to term, only to deal a few days later with her husband’s sexual advances. Death, and other kinds of loss make numerous appearances in these accounts. But there are moments of triumph and joy as well. Va Vang’s essay captures well the fluid nature of the lives in this book: “One day we think that life will be the same and we will be doing the same thing all our lives. Then change strikes without warning.” Nelson follows each chapter with a list of helpful, un-intrusive ‘Reflection Points.’ Read this if you want to delve into some amazing stories of women’s journeys of living true at critical points in their lives.
