Learning from Hannah: Secrets for a Life Worth Living

This is a thought-provoking adventure story that packs a powerful message for our society with its aging population. The story, in part autobiographical. Is told in the form of a journal kept by the doctor and his wife on an unknown island called Kallimos. It is a strange and wonderful world where Bill and Jude learn the ten simple ideas that govern life there-ideas that have the outcome of eliminating the plagues of boredom, helplessness, and loneliness in young and old alike. The Thomas's never want to leave, but fate has different plans for them. When they return to the States, they see clearly the truth about the horrible life space our society creates for its elderly. Their struggle to change our elder's lives for the better is, in fact, what the real-life Bill and Jude are doing every day as their life's work. with a program called the Eden Alternative. There is a double meaning in the titling of "Learning from Hannah" that the reader does not discover until the time is right, in the Epilogue. Hannah is the name of the elder in the story who teaches the character Bill the lessons of the island's approach to life. In the Epilogue we learn that Hannah is also the name of the author Bill's youngest child, and she suffers from a devastinging neurological disorder called Idiopathic Infantile Enciphalopathy. Doubly hurtful is the fact that Hannah's older sister suffers from the same disorder, and the Thomas's were told at the time that it couldn't happen again. As the author notes in the Epilogue: " In the story, we learn the most from Hannah; she is our greatest teacher. So it is in our family's life. Hannah had taught us the virtues of humility, forgiveness, and patience in a masterlyfashion. The pain of knowing that two of your children will never grow into lives of their own has gone deeper than any pain I have ever known. Yet, evening that pain, Hannah is there to teach me Hannah knows the deepest corner of my heart. She is wise; she is two years old: And so, even in the Epilogue, the author is connecting the circle of life between young and old.

A charming adventure story about a place where the wisdom of the elders has made a life worth living for all.