Elaine Marie Cooper Author

Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul

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When God’s Plans Don’t Fit

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The four-year-old girl approached her mother in tears.  “Mommy, this new sheet won’t fit!”

The mom quickly explained to her distraught daughter that the small cloth bag she was holding was not the new sheets. The child’s new pink floral sheets were in the laundry being washed. What the little girl held was the bag they had come in from the store.

Her mom and I giggled at the child’s misunderstanding. Yet I began to see myself in the child’s view of what she was holding.

Often our lives seem a poor fit with our expectations. Who would have thought, when my own daughter was four, that at age twenty-four she would die of a brain tumor? That did not measure up with my expectations.

“Lord, this cancer doesn’t fit my plans!”

Like the four-year-old holding an empty bag that crushed her dreams for a beautiful new bed, I cried to my Father that this was the wrong choice. Yet God tenderly reassured me that he was preparing something greater—an eternity of benefit that in His perfect wisdom would reap untold blessings for many.

God in His infinite wisdom knew that life would reveal many trials that seem so wrong and out of place. That is why He said, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, ‘ declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8 NIV

At such times, we lean on Him and bring our tears before Him. And like the four-year-old’s parent offered solace in her misunderstanding, Jesus sends His Holy Spirit for us to bring comfort and reassurance of His perfect provision.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1: 3-5 NIV

The story of my daughter's journey with cancer.
The story of my daughter’s journey with cancer.

True Valentines Are Not Grey

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All the recent publicity involving the release of a supposed romantic movie involving sadism has caused many to pause and consider what true romance really is.

In my personal experience, my committed relationship has involved watching my husband be self-sacrificing and compassionate. It’s the complete opposite of the Hollywood glorification of self-satisfaction and cruelty. My own marriage of nearly forty years has shown me that a true Valentine is one who serves others rather than themselves.

When our middle child and only daughter was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor in 2002, my husband became my hero. His days were spent helping me to cope with this horrible disease. He filled in to care for her when I needed a break. He accompanied us to as many doctor’s appointments as his work schedule allowed. He voluntarily missed our son’s graduation from Officer’s Candidate School so I could attend. No dad wants to miss that. But Steve did—for me.

When we knew the brain tumor was coming back after a temporary remission, it was Steve who had the strength to sit and hold her while she cried, and while I paced the room, too frantic to sit. When she could no longer care for herself and was bed bound, Steve helped me feed her and keep her clean. And when she passed away, Steve wept over our loss with as many tears as I did.

Can you imagine the “hero” of “Fifty Shades of Grey” doing all this—someone so consumed with their past that all they can do is control, belittle and hurt the woman they supposedly love?

I’ve heard it said that this lead character has had a difficult past. My response is, “Who hasn’t?”  My husband came from a broken home and his mother died of cancer when he was a teenager. But he allowed Jesus to heal his hurts, save his soul and become a new creation in Christ. He became the sort of hero who could help care for a dying daughter.

So for those who think a dapper looking man in a suit who wants what HE wants is heroic, think again. The real heroes are helping others in the battlefield of life.

 

The story of my daughter's journey with cancer.
The story of my daughter’s journey with cancer.

 

 

 

The Book I Balked At Writing

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I’ll never forget the day a friend stopped me at church. She knew I’d written a book but, instead of the one she expected, I’d written a historical fiction. “I thought you’d write a book about your daughter,” she said to me.

I looked at her in shock. “Are you kidding me? Relive the nightmare of her brain tumor? No way.”

I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of such a project. It would be too difficult to relive her journey through cancer and eventual passing.

How could someone even mention that, I thought? [Read more…] about The Book I Balked At Writing

Fifty Shades of Terrorism

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My husband and I went to see a movie last December with friends. We’d heard about the story of an Olympic runner who later served his country in WWII and then was interned in a prisoner of war camp. It was both inspiring and painful to watch.

During the incessant stream of movie trailers for upcoming releases before the movie even started, we saw an ad for another movie that gave a glimpse of an even more painful story. It showed a woman being seduced by a controlling man who put her in bondage for his sexual pleasure. The woman was tied by handcuffs to the bedposts, apparently in satisfied arousal.

Even I was fully aware of what this movie was about. Most Americans would have to have had their head in the sand the last few years to be unaware of the book that supposedly revitalized the sex lives of women everywhere.

The first time I heard about the bordering-on-black book was at one of my own book signings.

“Have you read it yet?” The middle-aged woman at my display table had a glint in her eye. “It’s on the bedside table of nearly every woman in America. It’s revolutionized their sex lives!”

“No. Can’t say as I’ve heard of it or read it,” I said innocently. With the enthusiasm of an Evangelistic Christian, she assured me I should indulge. The message was, “This book will save your sex life.”

Since I am quite satisfied with what goes on behind closed doors with my own husband, I didn’t feel compelled to be “saved.”

It wasn’t long before I heard there was not one but now a series of books. Concern about the content involving extreme bondage and the demeaning way in which the female character is treated, began to filter through stories I read from trusted sources.

Some began to complain. Others secretly bought the book and got sucked into the apparent titillation of the story.

The books are best sellers. Hollywood has now turned it into a movie and it’s being released for Valentine’s week.

Although I’ve not read this series of books, I’ve read reviews by those who I trust. Not being under the spell of the captivating arousal supposedly elicited by reading these stories, I have been alarmed by other forms of bondage that I see everyday on the news. There are horrific accounts, from sex trafficking to terrorist oppression. Women and girls throughout the world are being taught that they are nothing more than objects, to be used for a man’s pleasure. Why else would certain groups think it’s OK to surgically remove a woman’s organ of sexual pleasure?

So please consider this. Before you throw on sunglasses, gather your girlfriends and giggle your way into the late night theater, you might want to ask yourself a serious question: Are women who salivate at the idea of a man in gray having their minds twisted into terrorist submission?

 

 

 

Vaccines and Cancer

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When you read the title of this blog, you may have wondered if I was going to suggest that vaccinations cause cancer. That could not be further from the truth.

What I am suggesting is that, with the thousands of cancer patients who have suppressed immune systems (i.e. they can catch any illness that is within breathing distance), folks who choose NOT to vaccinate their children should keep them FAR AWAY from folks with cancer.

In the United States, we are currently undergoing a measles outbreak. It seems so foreign to many, since measles vaccine has been around for decades. Much publicity has been dedicated to the deleterious side effects of vaccines. In fact, there can be bad side effects to immunizations. Are the bad side effects common? No. Do vaccines usually prevent the very illness they are intended to immunize against? Yes.

Many years ago there was a terrible plague called polio. Throughout history, there were instances noted of polio-like illnesses and by 1910, frequent epidemics spread throughout the world. But the worst epidemic peaked in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The disease paralyzed or killed over half a million people worldwide every year.

My older sister was a victim of polio. She did not die, but has lifelong side effects that still impact her health.

In the 1950’s a miracle seemed to occur in medicine with the development of one, then a second more effective, vaccine to battle the polio virus. By 1961, only 161 cases were reported in the United States.

Now we are seeing the rise of another illness that has been previously under tight control with the use of a vaccine. The disease is called measles.

In 2004, there were only 37 cases of measles in this country. Compare that with 644 cases in 2014, and it is cause for concern. In the first 31 days of 2015, 102 people have already been diagnosed with the illness. Statistics are available on the CDC website.

Most of these cases are in children and adults who are either unimmunized for measles or underimmunized, meaning they’ve only had one shot. It takes two injections to provide adequate immunity.

Measles is highly contagious and seems to be spreading. Symptoms are a rash and fever. Victims can be contagious for four days before a rash develops. Measles can also cause pneumonia, brain damage, deafness and death.

The story of my daughter's journey with cancer.
The story of my daughter’s journey with cancer.

So where is the connection with cancer (a topic of interest to me since my own daughter died of that disease)? Imagine a child exposed to measles and possibly carrying the disease, being around someone on chemotherapy or undergoing radiation, whose ability to fight any illness is severely compromised. The thought sends a feeling of dread through me.

In this country, we are free to decide whether or not we immunize our children. But that choice can have deadly consequences for ourselves and others—something to think about when getting the real facts about vaccinations for children. Please be informed.

Sometimes studying history can tell us just how bad epidemics can be.

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Edmund Burke

 

 

The Joy of the Season

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Our best Christmas present in 1978 was our daughter, Bethany. She was only 7 pounds, 11 ounces, but our sweet newborn filled our home that year with immeasurable joy.

There was little else to celebrate that winter. Times were tough in the Cooper household and our personal economy had sunk deeper than the snowdrifts outside our door. Because of scarce resources, we had little in the way of gifts. But where the coins were limited, the creativity was limitless as our little tree took on festive yet simple decorations.

My mom visited and crocheted an ornament with the date spelled out in yarn. My husband, Steve, spent hours crafting a wooden truck for our two-year-old son.  My creative spouse spent more hours designing a wooden ornament that I still treasure to this day.  It was a memorable year in so many ways, with treasures abounding that money could not buy.

As I look back on that Christmas 36 years ago, I don’t regret the paucity of money nor the struggles we endured that taught us to be more compassionate Christians. What I do regret is that our sweet Bethany is no longer with us.

Bethanys Calendar Cover

Her life was a testimony of living life well, even when the years are few. In her twenty-four years, her life seemed to impact so many others who still can recall her smile, her laugh, her intelligence, and her compassion. Mostly, her legacy is one of faith fulfilled in living a Christian life that made a positive difference in the lives of others.

It was a life of joy despite circumstances that seemed to whisk her away to heaven far sooner than any of us wanted.  The joy in remembering Bethany reminds me that joy is not about the ever-changing circumstances that make us happy or sad. It is the realization that there is a promise for life eternal with God’s Son, whose birth we celebrate each Christmas.

That is truly the Joy of the season.

Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 2 Corinthians 8:2 NIV