A Song for Daddy — G.L. Fontenot

Would you willingly volunteer to have a surgeon crack open your sternum and remove your heart so it might be used to save someone else's life? Suppose you are relatively young and healthy with a great future. Could a decision like that ever be considered rational? Would it even be sane? A Song for Daddy will examine those very issues and test the readers' inner resolve...their will to do what's right. It will make them question their compassion, their commitment, even their morality, as they try to place themselves in the shoes of the characters within its pages. The pivotal character is a young woman, Valerie Landry. She is smart, resourceful, driven, and aggressive toward her goals, yet introverted. At the beginning of the story she is at a crucial point in her development of becoming an opera singer and realizes she has fallen short for the first time ever. She is confused, stunned, and even frightened, but determined to persevere on her own, not truly knowing how to ask for help. The two other principle individuals are Jason and Christine, Val's parents. They are ordinary, everyday people with no ties or affiliations whatsoever. They work hard, pay their taxes, vote, and worry about the typical problems. In all aspects they have lived the picturesque life of a middle-class existence for almost two and a half decades before their bubble of security and peace is irrevocably shattered by a nearly inconceivable accident of nature. When Valerie is struck down by a powerful bolt of lightning...her body injured in a devastating and ultimately lethal way...they find themselves in the fight of their lives. It's a fight against time, against Val's caretakers, against their own conscience, and eventually against the federal government. Their private desperation turns public in a unique approach Jason concocts to put pressure on those with the power and influence to save his daughter. The result turns out to be highly incendiary in ways he never imagined and draws enough attention to send it blazing around the globe in a frenzied wave, stirring up even more inflammatory emotions on foreign soil. When they are finally granted permission to proceed, the outcome is less than perfect. Jason loses his battle for life in a last-ditched surge of will to save Valerie, and the ensuing emotional agony profoundly affects the whole family. Christine is devastated at the loss of her one true love while simultaneously elated that his heroic gamble worked...Val lived. Valerie though, must then face the future feeling the guilt of her father's death, the media attention of such a divisive issue she had no decisive input to, and the long, physical rehabilitation following the traumatic surgery. When Val returns to her former life she begins to see the world from a fresh perspective. She doesn't know why or how, be it the lightning strike or the new heart, but she feels a powerful, permanent change has occurred. She defies the doctors, returns to college, astounds her professors, and eventually rises to the pinnacle of her profession...an opera soloist on worldwide tour. She also finds love and emotional commitment she never understood before and performs a heart-wrenching ballad in memory of her father. In the end, Valerie chooses to take one more daring step, ignores all prudent medical advice, and becomes pregnant; determined to beat the odds one last time...but fate isn't done with her quite yet. Left in a coma, barely clinging to life, she never sees her child come into the world. The final beats of that famous heart end merely seconds after the child is born, and the tragedy reverberates around the world. A Song for Daddy will challenge the readers' core beliefs and make them question their own, personal ethical resilience. It will bend all the rules about what is reasonable, normal, fanatical, and even legal. This story is about a battle against death...and everyone is subject to its provocative query: Could you make that same decision?