A Journey in God’S Embrace

By Dianne Wood Halloran

I couldnt believe this was happening to me! I was sitting in church with my parents. I was seventeen years old; I had my whole life ahead of me. I told God, This is dumb. I wasnt going to accept it and let it bring me down.
Join the author as she journeys through an illness that will challenge her and discover how she fights discouragement with determination and faith. She learns to deal with her limitations, finds love, and faces an even bigger challenge when someone she loves develops AIDS.

Through it all, her faith grows as she realizes just how family and friends are her strength and support. Was all this Gods plan for her?

What a story! I couldnt stop reading it. You have done an outstanding job telling your story. God often leads us in ways that we dont understand at first, but then it becomes clear to usif we believe.
- Donna Hillhouse

The greatest gift we can give to the world around us is using our life experience to help others. By writing this book, this is what Dianne has done. As we read it, we have to ask ourselves, Could we have done as well?
- Madeline Korff

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Oct 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462403387

Dianne Wood Halloran

Dianne grew up in the Berkshire hills in western Massachusetts. She raised two sons with her first husband and has two grandchildren. She is currently living with her husband Matt north of Atlanta. Together, they have five children and nine grandchildren.

Book preview

A Journey… 

                 in God’s Embrace

Dianne Wood Halloran

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Copyright © 2012 Dianne Halloran

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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New American Bible copyright 1991 CCD

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0339-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0338-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012917896

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 10/24/2012

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

To my husband Matt, with love, thank you for your encouragement and support

For Christopher and Bryan, I love you

In memory of Roger

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To Joan, thank you for editing the

manuscript…and for your continued encouragement and feedback.

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Cover art by Donna Skomiro,

Thanks Donna

This is my personal story. All that happened is as I experienced or perceived it. It is what I remember but may not be how it actually occurred..

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For you are my fortress,

My refuge in time of trouble.

My strength, your praise I will sing;

You, God, are my fortress, my loving God.

Psalm 59

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Chapter 1

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I couldn’t believe this was happening to me! I was sitting in church with my parents. I was seventeen years old…had my whole life ahead of me. I told God, this was dumb, I wasn’t going to accept it and let it bring me down.

We lived in the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts, a relatively small town with one major employer, General Electric. That’s where Dad worked and where he met my mom. She emigrated from Canada when she was eighteen years old with two of her brothers. French was her primary language, but she learned English right away. She had to; Dad didn’t speak French! She eventually became a United States citizen, but held on to her Canadian heritage when visiting with her family.

They were married and raised three daughters. I’m the youngest. We didn’t have brothers…my Mom told me my name was going to be Douglas Milton if I were a boy. All of their daughters had the same initials DMS; Doria Marilyn, Donna Mae and Dianne Marie. I guess it was a way to stay neat and tidy…everything in order. Mom was sent to a Catholic convent for her high school years where she was taught to be diligent while attaining perfection. The lessons she learned carried through my growing up years.

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Dianne, Doria and Donna 1954

They were able to send us to Catholic schools supported by our parish, which was French. In our town, there were at least five Catholic churches; one for almost every nationality. My parents wanted us to have a good education and felt a private education would be the best. The elementary school we went to was French. In high school, we took French as our second language; however none of their daughters learned to speak the language. We spoke English at home and only heard conversational French when we visited Mom’s family.

We did a lot of things together as a family like swimming at the lake and going on vacations. Many of those vacations were to sites where there was history or some way to broaden our education. We went to Washington D.C. and the New York World’s fair. I also remember going to Crystal Lake and Dad teaching us how to fish. I just couldn’t handle putting the worm on the hook! There were a lot of good memories. I don’t remember a lot of affection towards us. They just weren’t that way; however I knew they loved us.

Dad was a force to be reckoned with. He was proud of his daughters but heaven help us if we made a mistake. Dad was always hard on himself and expected no less from his children. He was shot down while flying a mission over Germany during World War II. He flew in a B-17 bomber and was the bombardier. He said that when the plane was hit it started a fire and he was standing in gasoline up to his ankles. He didn’t have to think twice about jumping out with his parachute. He landed in a pear tree and was captured. He spent eight months in a German prison camp and was reported missing in action. Dad didn’t talk much of his experience. He would say that it was best to put it behind him. I’m sure that all my parents went through during those times influenced how they perceived and dealt with life,

I almost idolized my dad in spite of his demands…he was so well respected in the community. People liked him and I was proud to be his daughter. In high school, my friends would come by to see him whether I was home or not. Being the youngest of three girls,