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(Excerpts from The Jamestown Post Journal article dated May 25, 2016)

Kim Rambacher has done his best to look forward the last 15 months, but he has plenty of amazing, inspirational, even miraculous, older memories to share too. Rambacher’s book, “Miracle Marcia,” (Xulon Press), is an inspiration to anyone struggling with cancer, to caregivers, and people of faith everywhere. It reminds us that EVERY day is a gift.

“Miracle Marcia” is a quick and compelling read; Rambacher and personal historian Patricia Pihl crafted a 50-chapter, 146- page book. National award winning graphic artist Rene McCann, provided the cover design. Marcia, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, was, and remains, the inspiration for the book.

“Time after time, small miracles surround Marcia in her 17-year battle with this disease,” Pihl writes. “In this book, Kim reflects how he met Marcia, how they fell in love, settled in Bemus Point, raised their family, and how they dealt with her sickness. Apparent through it all is Marcia’s strength, faith, optimism, sense of humor and continued love of life.”

 

At the urging of his friends, Rambacher decided to write the book as a way to honor his wife’s memory and to tell, what he calls, “extraordinary” stories.

“They weren’t all witnessed by me,” he said, “They were witnessed by other people that are also in the book. That’s what makes it even better.”

The chapter that resonates most with Rambacher is the first one. In it, Rambacher recounts the trip he made to visit friends in Florida a month after Marcia’s funeral. While there, he reconnected with Marcia Nolan Schultz, a classmate of Marcia Rambacher at Maple Grove Junior-Senior High School who was also her maid of honor.

“With my wife’s obituary, Celebration of Life program, and prayer card in hand, Marcia Schultz and I sought solace on the beach at Indian Shores,” Rambacher wrote. “…Walking the beach, we laughed, cried and struggled with the fact that life would go on without (Marcia). We eventually returned to the beach chairs. I realized that the paper mementos of my Marcia’s life had blown away. We searched the sand and shoreline, but found only two of the papers. Her obituary was gone. We never found it – but someone else did. Her name is Cindy Davin, a vacationer. She read it and returned it to my pastor.”

Cindy, who lives in Pearl River, New York, also sent a letter to Rambacher.

“I return this as a sign from Marcia to her husband, children, mother, grandchildren and siblings that she is with you and always will be,” she wrote.

Rambacher and his new friend also talked on the phone.
“She told me that she had found Marcia’s obituary four days after it had vanished,” he wrote. “Tangled in sea grass, it lay only 20 feet from where Marcia Schultz and I had been sitting that day. Coincidentally, Cindy and her husband had stayed at the same condo complex where I vacationed.
“As someone once said, ‘There are no accidents…there is only some purpose that we haven’t yet understood.’”

Forty-nine poignant, inspirational and even humorous chapters follow, with Bible verses included with each.

“How she dealt with it was amazing,” Rambacher said. “She knew she wasn’t in charge. When people asked Marcia how she was doing, she’d say, ‘I’m doing fine.’…She touched so many people because of her attitude, right up to her last day.”

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