Book excerpt: This powerful personal memoir follows Stefan Rybak, a workaholic with a history of success in entertainment, media, and marketing, as he confronts an unscheduled, inescapable interruption to his business plans. After Stefan collapses and is rushed to the emergency room, a doctor insists that he schedule major heart surgery to correct a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect. The surgery is potentially life-threatening. Ignoring the defect, however, means certain death. Confronted with his own mortality, and uncertain about how to handle this devastating new development in his life, Stefan appeals to the memories of his late, strong-willed, and highly protective mother Maria-who, as a young Polish girl, was forced into slave labor by the Nazis during World War II. She was a survivor, in every sense of the word, and prayer seems to have been the key to her survival. Stefan has always considered her a strong presence in his life and an ongoing role model for handling adversity. Although his mother has passed on, Stefan finds he has somehow become even closer to her as he confronts his terrifying medical situation. During post-surgical recovery, Stefan decides to write a book about his experience. He learns that his mother shielded him, both as a child and as a man, from the most difficult and traumatic realities that she had to cope with during and after the war. Stefan's mother was a remarkable, but deeply flawed, woman and, to complete the book, Stefan must come to terms with her good and bad choices, her alcoholism, her turbulent marriage and divorce, and her enduring spirituality. Prayer, he discovers, was the sustaining force in her chaotic and trauma-filled life. THE SHADOW ON MY HEART is a poignant examination of one man's struggle to cope with sudden, seemingly random adversity ... to understand and accept his mother as the human being she was ... to reconnect on a deeper level with his own family ... and to grasp the true meaning of the words, "Thy will be done."