Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Madonna in the Suitcase



Tonight I had the pleasure of joining a very merry throng at the Dunedin Public Library to celebrate with Huberta Hellendoorn, the launch of her book The Madonna in the Suitcase.

It is a heart-felt book of a mother telling the story of her life to Miriam, Huberta and Bart's daughter who has Down Syndrome. I am half way through reading it and have smiled and laughed and wept, and felt inspired by Miriam's spirit and Huberta and Bart's love and joy in their daughter. Miriam has a unique talent for art. Her's is the Madonna on the book cover.

The Dunninghame suite was packed with friends family and people who had been involved in their lives over the years. Such a happy buzz. A lovely night.

4 comments:

Mary McCallum said...

What a simply gorgeous cover and it sounds a terrific story. I'd like to read it, Vanda, is it widely available?

The Paradoxical Cat said...

What a fantastic evening it was - a tribute to the wonderful woman Huberta is. There was such a huge crowd and a lovely warm atmosphere.

Great to see the other Dunedin bloggers ;-)

Bookman Beattie said...

What a great cover. Who published it?

Vanda Symon said...

Huberta didn't have any joy with publishers, so with the assistance of a couple of local grants, self-published the books.

In fact, I've had so many email queries today, I'll do another post with her contact details.