Missing Parts

by Barbara Joy Laffey

Heartbreak, transformation, and an unthinkable dilemma that challenges everything

Synposis

When Barbara Joy’s brother needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life, she is a perfect match. There is just one problem: her body says no, loud and clear.

Missing Parts tells the story of the years leading up to and beyond her brother’s diagnosis. From adolescence to adulthood, Barbara Joy loses parts of herself to a patriarchal world, following men’s desires instead of her own instincts in the name of love, family, and belonging. The losses accumulate until cervical cancer and a radical hysterectomy, performed without true informed consent, leave her infertile and unmoored. It is only after years of mistakes, sacrifice, bodywork, and spiritual practice that she learns to honor her inner voice. Then comes the call to save her brother’s life, and she must find the unimaginable courage it will take to choose.

QUOTES FROM MISSING PARTS

“I have come to believe that the soul, deeply wounded and deeply opened, calls out. And that soul’s call is heard in some other language on some other plane, and that call is answered.”
“Perhaps it was true that love – real love – could indeed conquer all. And perhaps it was true that love is available to all of us if we are only willing to work our way past all the anger and all the pain.”
“I began to understand that my body spoke its own truth in its own language, and that it never lied to me. I began to accept my body’s smallest messages, no matter how or when they appeared, and even though I didn’t always understand what they were trying to tell me.”
“A cancer diagnosis is a rude awakening. Like an earthquake to a soul deep in slumber, it tosses you out of bed, slams you into a wall, then rattles your entire structure as you crawl over broken glass trying to find your way out to the light. That wake-up call turned out to be one of the greatest gifts I ever received.”

Praise

“Every woman knows what it feels like to override her own instincts and desires. Missing Parts is a vulnerable, brave, powerful, and clear-eyed reckoning with all that we repress and uncover as we learn to heal and know our most intimate selves.”

—Anne Liu Kellor, author of Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging

“This story contains wisdom we can all learn from, as it describes one woman’s journey to find the sacred core within.”

— Elinor Dickson, author of Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness

“An excellent writer. I could not put it down.”

— Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More and The Language of Letting Go

“A real page-turner. Her story is truly a journey toward wholeness.”

—Stephen Rowley, author of The Lost Coin: A Memoir of Adoption and Destiny

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