Norma Garcia’s only daughter Jasmine died in a horrible car accident. Though she continually feels her daughter’s loss, it was an experience that propelled this young mother to chart a new destiny for herself and others.
LatinaLista — On August 11, 2001, Norma Garcia’s life changed in an instant. One moment this San Antonio native was a mother of two returning with her husband and children from a fun-filled Mexican vacation. The next she was laying in a hospital bed bruised, fractured and swollen from a rollover car accident when a tire on the family’s SUV blew out.
Yet, what was worse was that she no longer was a mother of two living children. Her eldest, 13-year-old Jasmine, had been thrown from the car and critically injured. Her premature death, only several days later, pushed Norma into a whole new life direction that served as the impetus for her to share her unique story in “My Dear Jasmine: A Journey from Tragedy to Triumph” (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing 2008).
“My Dear Jasmine” can at first easily be mistaken as being a grieving mother journaling the most horrific incident of her life. But it’s only when walking alongside the author as she shares her daughter’s writings, baby pictures and smiling photos of that ill-fated vacation, all the while reliving the happy memories and recounting those dark times, that readers uncover the underlying inspirational message offered in the book.
However, as much as the book is about one mother sharing memories of her only daughter, it’s also a story that advocates and promotes a life-saving issue as well — organ donation.
Like most grieving families, Norma Garcia had never fully considered organ donation until she was approached and asked if she would consider donating Jasmine’s heart and liver.
As Norma walks readers through one of the most difficult times in any parent’s life, it’s not hard to see the transformations occurring in Norma and how the death of her child actually gave this mother a new life.
