24 March 14 • 2019
jn
Feel Better, Mommy
Local author’
s hospital
stay sparks helpful
children’
s book.
F
ifteen years ago, Risa Kirschner,
then 29, discovered she had a
life-threatening tumor on her
heart. Several surgeries and com-
plications led to many weeks in the
hospital. Kirschner worried about
her own health and
about how her daugh-
ter, Alli, then 2, would
cope with the trauma
of having her mother
away from home and
in the hospital.
The hospital staff
were “amazing,” she
said. Realizing how important it was
for her to see her young daughter,
they did everything they could to
make that possible.
“I don’
t have a lot of memories
about the hospital, but I remember
her visits,” said Kirschner, 44, of
Farmington Hills.
For Alli, trips to the hospital were
an adventure, said Kirschner, an
attorney and commercial real estate
broker.
“She got to ride on my lap in the
wheelchair. She made the bed go up
and down,” she said.
Soon after she came home,
Kirschner wrote the first draft of a
children’
s book based on the experi-
ences of her daughter, now a senior
at North Farmington High School.
Feel Better, Mommy will have a
launch party from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday,
March 26, in the Korman Atrium at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Abby is the book’
s heroine. Her
mom has a boo-boo, so her nana
takes her to the hospital, where she
discovers that spending time with
her mom can make the hospital feel
like home. The book teaches children
that hospitals are safe places and that
parents always love their children,
even if they must spend time away
from home.
“It’
s the kind of book I wish I had
had when Alli came to visit,” said
Kirschner, who has been published
in two books for adults. In Inspired
to Change: Improving Patient Care
One Story
at a Time, edited by Linda Laren, she
describes how a hospital can become
a sacred space for healing. She talks
about her personal health experi-
ence in Heart 2 Heart: Stories from
Patients with Left Ventribular Assist
Devices, edited by Ruth Halben.
An advocate for patient- and
family-centered care, Kirschner has
served on the executive committee
of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center
at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor.
Kirschner’
s sister, Rabbi Jennifer
Kaluzny of Temple Israel, said pre-
paring Alli for visits to the hospital
was difficult.
“We didn’
t have a children’
s book
that could tell the story in a clear
and sweet way. There just wasn’
t
anything available,” she said. “When
Risa recovered and we told her about
Alli’
s first visits, she was determined
to fill this gap.
“I think she more than succeeded.
The book reflects not only the expe-
rience a child would have visiting the
hospital, but also the unbreakable
bond between every parent and child
that goes beyond the boundaries of
their home.”
She said Kirschner’
s family —
including her husband, Brian, and
her father, David Tisdale, CEO of
Temple Israel — is “proud beyond
words.” ■
The 24-page book is illustrated by Anna
Kubaszewska and published by Warren
Publishing. A coloring book version, with the
pictures in outline form, also is available. Visit
feelbettermommy.com or Amazon.
jews d
in
the
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Risa Kirschner
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