An Invisible Thread

Laura Schroff, first-time author and former advertising executive (People, In Style, Brides, USA Today), tells the true story of her chance encounter with a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler, Maurice Maczyk, and the remarkable 25-year friendship that developed.  An Invisible Thread tells the parallel stories of Laura and Maurice and how their lives were fated to converge on a busy NYC street.  It describes the poignant meetings through which they built a lasting trust and learned the simple things that really matter.  Most of all, this book is about how, if we learn to let go of fears and burdens and expectations, we can find ourselves plunged into the sweet, unplanned blessings in life.

My Thoughts: I'm so glad I finally got to this title in my to-read basket - it's one of those books you don't want to put down until it's finished. Laura when confronted by an 11 year old panhandler instead of ignoring him or at best giving him some loose change, asked the young Maurice to lunch at McDonalds. This was the start of a friendship that was to impact both their lives long term.
I thought that Laura was going to be some near-perfect rich woman doing a good deed (not that there's anything wrong with that) but turns out she herself came from modest means and an abusive family. Although she couldn't comprehend the poverty and drugs of Maurice's life, she did understand that he deeply valued the consistency she provided in his life.

“An Invisible Thread—a remarkable story, told so beautifully and honestly— shows us what’s possible when we are not afraid to connect with another human being and tap into our compassion. It is a story about the power each of us has to elevate someone else’s life and how our own life is enriched in the process.  This special book reminds us that damaging cycles can be  broken and not to neglect the humanity of the strangers we brush up against every day.”                                             --CHRIS GARDNER, bestselling author of The Pursuit of Happyness

 
This book was provided to me by Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster; I received no monetary compensation for my honest review.