About This Episode
Jacque Gorelick joins Mike to talk about her memoir, Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home. The book follows a seemingly ordinary family outing that turns into a medical crisis when Jacque's husband collapses from cardiac arrest on a trail — with their nine-week-old son in the stroller beside her.
Woven through that harrowing day is the story of Jacque's rootless childhood, the loss of her mother at age eight, and years of family estrangement. It's a conversation about grief, resilience, the power of writing to heal, and the family we build for ourselves when the one we were born into falls apart.
Key Takeaways
- Words have power from an early age. Jacque's love of writing started as a child — from clubhouse rules to thank-you notes — and eventually led her to memoir.
- Distance helps when writing about trauma. Having ten years between the medical crisis and putting pen to paper gave Jacque the perspective to write about it without being consumed by it.
- Writing memoir can build empathy for your younger self. Revisiting painful childhood memories allowed Jacque to see herself with compassion rather than shame.
- A cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Jacque learned firsthand that cardiac arrest is an electrical event that can strike even a healthy, active person.
- Caring for a newborn can be grounding in a crisis. The routine demands of nursing and caring for her son kept Jacque anchored during the most terrifying hours of her life.
- Found family matters. Despite estrangement from her biological family, Jacque discovered that the people who show up unconditionally become the family that counts.
- Reconnection is possible, even after decades. After more than 30 years of silence, Jacque reconnected with her brother — a reminder that it's never too late, even when it's complicated.
