Harnessing Grief

The remarkable story of how a mother moved from rage to hope after learning her youngest child was dying and harnessed her grief to transform the lives of others.Harnessing Grief will hearten readers through Maria Kefalas's journey of understanding how to find hope and purpose amongst the most tragic of circumstances. In 2012, Maria's life took a dramatic turn when her youngest child, Calliope was diagnosed with an ultra-rare neurological disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD). Doctors predicted that Cal might only live a few years and Maria was consumed with rage and grief. Maria's son suggested they start selling cupcakes "to find a cure for Cal's disease" and the family embraced it and have now sold more than 40,000 cupcakes and raised over $700,000. On the year anniversary of Cal's diagnosis, Maria learned about a groundbreaking gene therapy in Milan, Italy. Tragically, the breakthrough came too late to cure Cal, who is now 10. Maria tells the surprised...