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Editorial Review Product Description
I was a happy newlywed, feeling like I was on top of the world, blissfully satisfied with my life; until the phone rang one beautiful, October morning.It was a call that would shatter my world forever...So compelling and heart wrenching was the journey that ensued, Monique and Rene Muñoz's story was featured in Glamour (c) Magazine's December 2005 issue entitled, "Could You Let Your Husband Die?"Glamour (c) 2009 is a registered TM of Condé Nast. ... Read more Customer Reviews (6) 
A Book I'llRead Again!
I had to stop and take a moment to write a review about a book that significantly impacted me when I read it. The story immediately captured my attention and continued to hold my interest. The way the story sets the stage of the author's life, then takes you into her and her husband's amazing and tragic story of love and faith and is done well.
Ms. Munoz's honesty about her own challenges, fears, and struggles throughout their journey is written in such a way which makes you feel like she is sitting next to in your living room and telling you the story. But, it's not just a story, it's a book about love, perseverance and God's grace.
I'll keep this book on my shelf and every once in a while when I'm facing life's challenges, I'll pull out, read it and it'll remind me of great love, God's mercies and God's faithfulness.It'll remind me that there is nothing that God can't bring me through.
There's both sides to the story as his younger sister.
What I think of the writer "Bee-cause I love myself" I need to continue telling the world what a wonderful person I am. You need to let it go and let him rest in peace. Because him as a christian man would not agree to what you continue to do in bragging..I am very grateful for what you have done, like taking care of him. but like i said there are two sides to the story. one you tell and what you don't..sincere love Veronica Munoz
Munoz' book exceeded all expectations- a page turner
I reluctantly read this book on the advice of a friend. Everything from its cute title "BeeCause You loved me" playing on the title-words in that song by the Canadian singer, Celine Dion to a reference how abee sting made her husband ill, changing the author, Monique L. Munoz's life. In short this linkage of words made me wary.
Frankly, I was expecting a "Star Jones" type of memoir in which the author triumphs by being smarter, being more blessed by God than anyone else and working harder than everyone. Then attempt to write a story of herself by dealing in half truths, flattering hints and clever phrases without providing any details or any new wisdom along the way. This was what I expected.
Wow, was I wrong! Pundits-Professors Rufus Fears, Christina Baldwin and Timothy Spurgin to name a few-tell us there are certain characterisics that define a good read or a great story.A focus on events either displaying an unconditional love,overcoming an unforseen tragedy or the marshalling of personal courage in times of peril. Also a writer must have an ability to speak across age, gender and cultural barriers. But above all, the readers should feel the writer is talking them as individuals rather than as a group. This she does.
In literature, there are some foolproof themes such as writing how one endured a hardship without crumbling or how a single individual struggled to survive.Others such as`how love can bring both pain and pleasure. Or how does one cope with new fears, unusual situations and discover hidden strengths. A memoir should not tell how character of a person is formed. Maybe why it was shaped...because an adversity does not create character, but will only reveal what is already there. Few memoirs can offer you invaluable lessons, insight on the human condition and teach you through an unique experience at the same time,but when it does..... then it must be rated as "a way above average" read. This is what I learned that Munoz's book does.
I read the book in four huge gulps. The first quarter of her memior is a stunningly powerful love story. Woven beautifully, filled with prose-popping, heart tugging details, she captured our spirits and displays her at the same time. In a honest manner, she tells how her emotional shaping was rebuild at a mature age while she was in her thirties.. How she was able to overcome memories of sexual abuse in her childhood, and past turbulent relations with her first husband into a new type of sexuality-spooning the night away is worthy of being read.
Good memoirs are difficult pieces to write. Few things are more difficult in a memoir than doing justice to a complicated marriage. Considered how difficult Munoz's marriage was:different races, different cultures, trying to set up a minstry to God part-time, working full time, managing a family with teenagers, feuding ex-mates on two other marriages. All of this in less than three years, add to it the poisoning sting of a bee,then one can see how the complexity of their relationship only intensifies. Though this is a medium-sized book of less than 260 pages, some readers may feel it could have been even shorter had she forgone some details. Wrong, it is the details that makes her story more appealing..it makes one wonder if she kept a journal by her nightstand, in her car, next to her desk and at the hospital.
Throughout the book, she is a cynosure by example issuing wisdom by her words " Forget about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain" and exposing the internal conflict between her heart and her head how she as a minister can make carnal love outside the boundaries of a marriage. All handled in a truthfully and understandable way.
She opened her heart at every interval by being very honest, arousing one's curiosity at time, showing forgiveness to her husband's family and uncompromising support to her two college age children. She even refuse to take credit for their scholastic success, saying..." I am just honored to be their mother". Oddly, the scene in which she falls in love and the inner conflict-a scene that might be wrought with cliches- is one of the most powerful, honest and credible moments in her inner narrative.
There are many lessons to be learned here. Memories lie buried, yet she explains how they remain forceful enough to shape our lives unless we confront them and then try to forget them. But to remember that somehow they don't forget us as easily.Among other things, she shows how relationships are based on certain emotional elements and how they are described make up the lifeblood and the beating heart of any memoir. This she did superbly.
She explained how there are certain emotional elements within all relationships which monitor the interior climate of our souls as part of the human condition. For example, how some of her chapters are titled -"Friendship, Insanity, Denial, Adapting, Grief"-offer a virtual tour of the human condition. Her conciseness of seperating one emotional element from the other is shown over and over again. For example she shows how grief is an individual emotional reaction to a loss (death, sickness, divorce, etc) based on the emotional price ticket valuing the loss; while bereavement are calculated to the age, the culture and prevous emotional experience of the mourner. Most people make the mistake of thinking grief and bereavement are interchangable, Munoz does not.
All in all, she depicted emotions as being fluid and yet arbitary at places...just like if they were water, without obstacles they flow taking up the shape and form of whatever container they are poured. Also like water, settling at the lowest point in one's life or overflowing to excess if not controlled.
How she is able to raise two children, hold down a demanding executive position in the fast moving sofware industry, drive across the Seattle area daily to be by her husband's side is very revealing, and when hishealth goes from bad to worse she refused to give in. "I am the most stubborn person I know" she declares.
It's hard to identify the intended audience for this book or how it may make a difference. Further one wonders exactly what was the motivation for Munoz's writing such a honest and powerful memoir. Soren Kiekegaard, the Danish Philosopher and Samuel Johnson, the Scottish writer, both stated that people write for one of three reasons: either to become famous; to become wealthy; or for revenge. However there are other reasons, a memorial to her late husband perhaps, the psychological belief that the sooner private emotions are discussed or written down, the better; and that broken hearts heal faster if made public; and the best legacy for one's children and their children's children is a memoir.
Whatever was her key motivation, it is clear that she would be or is an excellent advocate for a patient's rights. The book is an instructional manuel, if not a technical primer on how to deal with hospitals, insurance procedures, non-supporting family members, uncaring doctors,and to negotiate around a ego-structured environment such as a medical institution. How to make certain that everyone remains patient-centered is something she seemed skilled at doing.
In summary, Munoz writes to the heat and soul of what makes us human. She writes so forcefully that one is drawn deftly ino another world, seeing someone experience as your own. The fact she wrote it so soon after her husband death is an important factor. Her text conveys an extraordinary sense of urgency, a fierce need to capture the complexities of human behavior while everything is still fresh and volatile. She shoehorned her way into being a caregiver for Rene, her husband, with a plucky, can we do better attitude and a refusal to just let him die without a fight.
Errol D. Alexander Sr., Arrowhead Institute, Tacoma Div of TAGACO
A Real Page Turner!!!
"Beecause You Loved Me" is a fasinating read. It's a real page turner in the fact that it's hard to put down once you start reading it.The writer captivates her readers with her inspirational personal story of her strength, courage, faith and Love.As a man reading this book, I can only say "wow, what a very special woman".This book makes the reader think as well as feel.I loved the book so much that I bought several copies as gifts.All I can say is; read it, enjoy it and share it.I feel blessed as a result.
Inspiring true story of love and courage
What would it be like to find your true love, and within months of your wedding lose most - but not all - of him to afreak allergic reaction?How would you cope with caring for him for 3+ years while also raising 2 teenagers and supporting everyone with a full time job?These questions sound like the basis for a good introspective novel - yet they are the reality that author Monique Munoz faced, and writes about, in BeeCause You Loved Me.
The story is written in an easy, informal style, and Ms Munoz is frank though never self-pitying in her description of the challenges she faced.Despite the title and main subject of the book, though, it is in essence a love letter to her late husband.Instead of focusing solely on Ms. Munoz's dedication to her husband after his accident, much of the book revolves around the charming story of how they fell in love, how that love was nurtured by their strong mutual faith, and how they honored that love in their daily lives.
Read this book to get a dose of perspective - trust me, your problems will probably start to feel small as you read about what the Munoz family faced.And read this book for an uplifting story of love transforming two lives, giving one woman the strength to do the impossible.
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