Seated and surrounded by friends as she sells and signs her books, Debi Morzark Hutchens just doesn’t look like she’s been sick a day in her life. She’s one of those people for whom laughter comes easily, someone who’s never met a stranger, a Christian strong in her faith.
She’s not physically strong though. She tires easily, can’t do any lifting, gets short of breath with a little exertion. She’s had to retire early from the job she loved with the Houston County Board of Education. Still, she’s found another kind of work. She has written a book called “A Bypass in the Road: Journey of the Heart” that she hopes will be an encouragement to others going through the kind of serious, and unanticipated health crisis she has survived. The book, published by Tate Publishing, and introduced by Dr. Allan Lockerman, is scheduled for nationwide release in April.
It is the story of a sudden change in Hutchens’ life journey, that began when she went to her doctor for a routine checkup and just happened to mention a little tightness she was feeling in her chest.
Her doctor paid careful attention, ordered tests, and Hutchens, whose mind was really on getting ready for her family’s Christmas, found herself having a heart catheterization, and then being told that her life depended on her having heart bypass surgery.
Following the surgery, and her stay in intensive care, she was able to be home for Christmas and happy that her husband Larry, her children and grandchildren and her whole family have made sure that Christmas day was a very special event. She thought she was on her way to full recovery and returning to work.
It was not to happen, however, because two of her bypasses collapsed, and only one could safely be repaired.
Her book, a small volume in which her personal experience is interspersed with scripture, is essentially a story of learning to trust completely in God, which she expresses this way at one point. “Although the enemy was saying, ‘You are crushed. Nothing good will come out of this,’ the Savior was saying, ‘Calm down, Debi. I am in control. Nothing will happen to you without going through Me first. Hang on to Me.’”
“We go through so many struggles,” she says of her experience, “All of our lives are so uncertain, and nothing is guaranteed. But God is with us.” She hopes that her book will be an encouragement to others as they go through life-changing and frightening experiences. It also provides information to help women recognize the symptoms of heart health problems
‘A Bypass in the Road’ is available through the publisher at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore. It will also soon be sold at the Perry Bookstore, and in April will be available on Amazon.com.
