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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