Lesa Stember

Abby: a Mother?s Memoir of Losing One Daughter and Being Saved by Another Lesa Stember

After experiencing two miscarriages in five months, author Lesa Kelley Stember and her husband joyfully but anxiously learn they are again pregnant. Trepidation marks the first several months of the pregnancy, but the couple finally relaxes. Then, during an ordinary day in the sixth month, Lesa's fears are realized-Abby stops moving. Trying to remain calm, she discusses the lack of movement with her midwife, Terry, the next afternoon. Terry is initially reassuring, but as she begins an ultrasound, her face immediately morphs. Silence fills the room and Lesa slowly understands its significance-no heartbeat can be heard. For unexplained reasons, Abby's perfect little body has died, forcing Lesa and her husband, Jaime, to live through her tragic stillbirth. The experience does not end then, but becomes relentless torture over a period of weeks as the family suffers through Abby's cremation, and the scattering of her ashes on a section of beach in Pebble Beach, California. Abby, an honest, introspective memoir of a stillbirth and its emotional aftermath, is also a celebration of Abby's three-year-old sister, Peyton. Her small voice and tender heart pulled her family over incredible obstacles and gave them peace and hope during the darkest hours imaginable.