THE 13TH GIFT

A very moving Christmas-themed memoir.

December 1999: It was the Christmas season, but Joanne Smith was numb. She wished she could just go to sleep and wake up on December 26. No singing. No laughter. No shopping. She typically enjoyed the holidays, but she couldn’t stomach celebrating. Her beloved husband of almost twenty years had died two months prior. What had once been a happy home was now devastated, leaving her and her three children drowning in grief.

Until they were thrown a lifeline. Twelve days before Christmas, Jo was in the midst of rushing her kids to school, when she discovered a poinsettia sitting on her doorstep with a card, signed cryptically by her “true friends.” That seemingly small gift was the turning point for the Smith family, as over the course of the twelve days of Christmas, a new gift arrived daily. The mystery of the Christmas presents – specifically, the generosity and kindness behind them – worked its magic on the Smiths as the family knitted back together. They rose out of their grief and latched onto the hope they suddenly felt again: that with love, with community, and with family, even the most broken hearts can be mended.

Written in accessible prose with a warm voice, The 13th Gift is an inspirational memoir that will work magic on readers just like the gifts worked on the Smith family. It’s a true journey from one of the bleakest moments in a family’s history back to a place of strength and love. The 13th Gift is a heartwarming holiday tale about one family’s Christmas miracle that will appeal to readers of The End of Your Life Book Club, Dewey and Tuesdays With Morrie. Those may be huge shoes to fill but The 13th Gift has that kind of potential – to reach out to readers of all genres and of all backgrounds.

Joanne (Jo) Huist Smith is an award-winning journalist for the Dayton Daily News where she chronicles the lives of people and issues shaping her Ohio community. She began writing short stories and journaling at age nine. Jo was awarded first place from the Ohio Associated Press for Best Community Service for her 2009 package of stories on heroin’s destructive path through rural and suburban neighborhoods. The judges said her series "delivers information straight to the bloodstream.” Jo’s career has been guided by advice given to her by former Dayton Daily News Managing Editor Steve Sidlo: “Love truth and you’ll be alright.” Those words are echoed in everything she writes, including The 13th Gift. Jo is a life-long resident of the Dayton area and a graduate of Wright State University. She has three adult children and two absolutely adorable red-headed grandchildren