Book Review: ‘Let There Be Hope’

“Let There Be Hope” is a very touching story written by Mary Alice Majoue, 40 years after the loss of her baby daughter shortly after birth. It is a personal story about the grieving Majoue and all her family experienced, about faith, God’s healing power and the unexpected blessings that eased some of their sufferings. 

One can only imagine the pain and suffering Mary Alice and her family experienced with the loss of their infant child. We know grieving is a part of human existence and that the grieving one goes through is unique.

In “Let There Be Hope,” we read Majoue’s personal reflection on her unique grieving journey.

In Chapter 1, we learn of the “shock” Majoue received from her obstetrician eight weeks prior to her due date. The results of an ultrasound revealed the baby was “anencephalic” (her brain had not formed properly and “she would die either during labor or shortly after birth”). This dreadful news became true as infant Carrie died 44 minutes after birth and Majoue, her spirit broken and feeling powerless, began her long grieving journey.

It seems natural that the start of Majoue’s grieving process begins with a question of “how?” 

“How might it be possible to survive the devastation of losing my baby?” she wrote. “There was also the question of “why?” Why should I survive when my innocent child didn’t? In thinking about these questions, I recalled what Viktor Frankl wrote in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’” 

Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and later converted to Catholicism. He said, “We can survive any ‘how’ as long as we know the ‘why.’ That is, if we could somehow find meaning in our suffering, we could draw strength from it to continue on; to not only survive, but thrive.”

After a long period of suffering, Majoue found her own answers. The “how” to survive was to “turn it over to God,” and the “why” of her grieving became “redemptive suffering,” the willingness to join her sufferings to the cross.

During her journey she would realize the importance of the support friends and family provided, she would accept the fact that God was in control of her grieving, and she began to trust that he was going to lead her toward the good her pain and suffering could bring to others. Her “redemptive suffering” helped her to be more sensitive and aware of others who might be grieving and strengthened her faith in the healing power of God.

The pain from losing a loved one never ends. And, even though it has been more than 40 years since Carrie died, Majoue continues on her grieving journey taking it “one step at a time.”  

Majoue’s purpose for writing and publishing “Let There Be Hope” is that it might help readers who have experienced the loss of a loved one to better navigate their grieving journey. Her testimony is a message of hope for all who have experienced the loss of a loved-one and a wonderful reminder on how “Redemptive Suffering” can produce blessings in spite of our grieving pain.

John H. Dolezal is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.