Heaven Is Here: An Incredible Story of Hope, Triumph, and Everyday Joy

Mormon homemaker Nielson was leading an old-fashioned happy life with a handsome husband (she called him “Mr. Nielson,” à la Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy), four kids, and a successful blog about her perfect life. Then she and her husband were in a small plane crash. Both survive, but are badly burned; Stephanie is burned over 80% of her body and in a coma for four months. After she awakens, she isn’t sure she wants to live, but she is sure she doesn’t want to see her children, and most of all she doesn’t want them to see her, disfigured by burns. Nielson heals, as the subtitle immediately telegraphs. But the road to recovery is deeply cratered with difficulties: pain, depression, the inability to look in a mirror and behold her scarred features. What saves her almost in spite of herself is her large family: parents, brothers and sisters, and her husband, himself recovering from injuries. Nielson’s journey from a simple life taken for granted to complex and challenging daily joy is moving and authentic. (Apr.)