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Cathy Schaffer has always been a writer. She tells the story of how she still has her sixth-grade notebook where she wrote down observations about her teacher and classmates. She is an avid journalist and has journals that are more than twenty years old. “Journaling is like writing a letter to your best friend”.
She was fortunate enough to graduate from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Tx and became a Physician Assistant. Her first job as a PA was working with women who were HIV positive. She eventually went into critical care where she has spent most of her thirty year career.
She has researched trauma extensively in order to understand how it affects the brain and the therapies that can help. She is an advocate for those suffering with mental health issues and is the program coordinator for the opioid use disorder project at Lee Health in Fort Myers Fl.
She credits ballroom dancing for helping her discover her self-confidence and balance in her life. “Ballroom dancing is a form of meditation that allows you to get in touch with your body and to focus your brain on the moment.” She is a National award-winning competitive ballroom dancer who has danced in competitions across the country.
She lives in Fort Myers, Florida with her rescue toy poodle, Sadie and continues to work full-time as a physician assistant. But she still finds time to practice her passions; dancing and writing.
Reviewed by Gobi Jane for Readers' Favorite
Letters of Forgiveness by Cathy Schaffer is a fascinating story, filled with humanity and realism and following very compelling characters. At twenty-four, Katie is a Second Lieutenant, an intelligent and very skilled fighter. In a mission that goes wrong in Afghanistan, she loses a lover, a best friend, and her leg. While the physical wounds heal eventually, the trauma remains, which leads to the decision to be put in a rehab facility. It is here that she meets a Russian dissident, Dimitri Demidova. He is experiencing dementia and Katie strikes up a relationship with the suffering man and his daughter, Elena. What becomes of the friendship is an unexpected journey towards healing.
This is a story that filled my eyes with tears; it is emotionally rich and the author knows how to put readers into the hearts of her characters. It is a journey of healing where wound heals wound. The characters are richly conceived with a solid background and huge emotional and psychological baggage. Themes of friendship, mental health, family, and healing are brilliantly developed in this story. There is so much to love on every page of the narrative and while the prose is gorgeous and the overall writing engaging, I particularly loved how real Cathy Schaffer makes the story. Letters of Forgiveness is told in a strong voice filled with compassion and humanity. The characters are exceptional and the message of the story is a powerful one. It is about the miracle that happens when we open our hearts and allow others to touch us where we hurt the most.
