“When I met Ted, he had some things going on. He wasn’t a perfect man; no man is. He and his friends loved playing the casinos in Atlantic City. He gave that up completely because I didn’t particularly care for gambling. He also gave up his habit of smoking a half pack of cigarettes daily. Mind you, I would never allow him to smoke in the house. He stopped even casual drinking. God had transformed his life.”
– an excerpt from the book
Author Reputation Press is honored to publish “The Ice Underneath: My Passage Through Loss and Faith: A Memoir” by Dr. Wanda Broach-Ward. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
“The Ice Underneath: My Passage Through Loss and Faith: A Memoir” by Dr. Wanda Broach-Ward is a heartfelt and introspective account that explores themes of tragedy, faith, and resilience. The memoir details Wanda’s profound experiences and challenges, particularly through her role as a foster parent, and reflects on her belief system in the face of unfathomable loss.
Dr. Wanda Broach-Butts, RN, MHA, CFN, is the Department Chair, of Nursing Education and Clinical Support, at Eastern International College, in Bellville, N.J. She received her Doctorate in Nurse Practice with a Concentration in Organizational Leadership from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), currently known as Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
She was the founder of Nurses Make the Difference, Inc., which provided training and consultation for nurses, clinicians, and support staff working with the mentally ill and behaviorally challenged. As a certified coach, Dr. Broach-Butts offers workshops and seminars on personal empowerment and processing loss and trauma.
In her spare time, she enjoys mentoring young women, singing in her church choir, participating in family events, bowling, shopping, visiting various tasty restaurants, and theaters, reading a good book, and volunteering time to support the community, which gives her an opportunity to grow as a person and better understand how she fits into the world around her.
When Wanda Broach-Butts and her husband Ted were asked to take in a foster child—a 14-year-old named Aaron, being held in jail on shoplifting charges—they were ambivalent about saying yes. They had already raised four foster youth and had given back as much as they could. They wanted to enjoy each other in retirement with no distractions, perhaps even live out their dream of relocating to a Caribbean island.
But if they didn’t accept the teenager into their home, the agency said there was a good chance no one would, so Wanda and Ted said yes. They were told little about Aaron’s family history, but that had been the case with every young person they took in. They saw hints of the past in their habits and behaviors—just the tip of the iceberg—without really knowing what lay beneath. Yet this had never been a concern before, and besides, Aaron would be their last foster child.
“The Ice Underneath” is an unsparing account of Wanda’s passage through an unfathomable tragedy that tested, to the breaking point, her profound Christian faith. With introspective courage, she relentlessly examined and questioned what she thought she believed about herself and found strength in her family’s complex history of loss and redemption. This memoir is a testament not only to our capacity to endure the unimaginable but also to emerge from it with greater resilience and spiritual fortitude than we thought possible.
The memoir presents an unsparing account of Wanda’s journey through an unfathomable tragedy that tested, to the breaking point, her profound Christian faith. It serves as both a personal narrative and a reflection on faith, providing insights into how individuals can confront life’s greatest hardships.
“The Ice Underneath: My Passage Through Loss and Faith: A Memoir” by Dr. Wanda Broach-Ward is now available for purchase via ARPress Bookstore: https://authorreputationpress.com/bookstore/the-ice-underneath-my-passage-through-loss-and-faith-a-memoir/.