About This Perfect Life
Emma and Walter’s stories intertwine as both face their own insurmountable challenges, WW2 coming together with 2018 to explore what it means to live one’s best life.
Emma, desperate for the doctors to perform a miracle for her newborn child is forced to prepare for the worst in the same way Walter had to face his own demise and dire end eighty years prior. One soldier’s perspective on life’s significance is revealed bit by bit while Emma searches for that same perspective in the present. The power of love and the human spirit can prevail even in the gravest circumstances.
There is much in life we don’t know and can’t control, but that doesn’t mean one cannot prepare for it.
This Perfect Life is two true stories, Walter and Emma, whose lives demonstrate both the struggles when life seems too much, and the triumphs that can be realised with a fresh perspective no matter what life throws at them.
It’s 2018 when Emma and her husband Andrew travel to a Sydney hospital from Perth in a last attempt to save their son Ethan as he suffers one heart attack after another. Ethan’s existence swings between life and death, resuscitated and brought back to life four times before the age of two. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him and maybe they never will. Living a mother’s worst nightmare, Emma turns inward to reflect on the meaning of life. What could the purpose be for her son—her husband, herself—to go through such trauma and stress?
She finds answers when she discovers her great-grandfather’s diary from World War II, which reveals the profound revelations Emma has been searching for, even as she grapples with the harsh reality that her baby may never come home.
It’s the year 1943 in Changi POW Camp and Walter is a young and devoted family man who enlisted in the military at the height of the war. The horrors of war can’t be unseen, and Walter’s cruel trials and endurance of the fall of Singapore is exposed through his deeply personal account. He survives the fight, the betrayal and incompetence of leaders, only to find himself a prisoner of the war he desperately wants to escape. He grips tight to hope, knowing there is greater meaning for what he is going through, even if it means he may never return home to the love of his life.
About the author
Compelling is the word used consistently by readers. Others have described his writing as fresh, unpredictable, therapy for us all, effective, generational, meaningful stories with humour. His degree in Theology, post graduate studies in the USA, and further historical studies at Sydney University in Australia brings depth and thoughtful perspectives. Mentoring and training leaders, both in Australia and Europe keeps his application grounded and helpful. He will gladly tell you his greatest sense of fulfilment is when any one of his four adult children contact their parents for advice. He says, “it is most satisfying to know they think we have something to say to them and their generation in everyday affairs.”