Raising Stephanie: SDC Parent Publishes Memoir of Parenting Her Disabled Daughter

Mark your calendars now for a special event coming up in December. Erin Thompson will be reading from her new book, Only a Stone's Throw, beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 13th, at Book Passage in Corte Madera. It is her memoir of raising her daughter Stephanie, who now lives on Johnson "B" at Sonoma Developmental Center.

Only a Stone's Throw chronicles the lows and highs of parenting the author's eldest daughter to adulthood after she was mentally disabled as a newborn. It's an honest tale of love and strength when life deals out surprises with unexpected results.

Erin O'Donoghue Thompson,
author of Only a Stone's Throw

Thompson started writing at the age of seventeen. She was the editor of her high school newspaper but put her literary aspirations aside to raise a family. Once her eight children were on their own she did a ten year stint as a travel consultant, taking groups to China, photographic safaris to Africa, and groups of women on shopping tours to Hong Kong. In 2007 she was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This was a wake-up call to “do it now” whatever your dream may be. Her's was to write a book about the struggles of raising Stephanie, her disabled daughter.

The Book Passage is located just off 101 at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd in Corte Madera (94925). There is no charge to attend the reading. For up-to-date information on the event, visit Left Coast Writers®: Erin O’Donoghue Thompson - Only a Stone's Throw on the Book Passage website.