Jim Towey was a trusted advisor and personal friend of Mother Teresa of Calcutta for twelve years, and did the first reading at her Mass of Canonization in Saint Peter’s Square. He headed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush, and was president of two Catholic colleges, a US Senate staffer, and head of Florida’s 40,000-employee health and human services agency. In 1996, with Mother Teresa’s encouragement, he founded the nonprofit advocacy organization Aging with Dignity and created the Five Wishes advance directive, which has sold 40 million copies and is used in all fifty states. Towey met his wife, Mary, in Mother Teresa’s Washington, DC, AIDS home. He continues to provide pro bono legal services for the Missionaries of Charity.
Towey portrays Mother Teresa in trademark sandals and sari, and also as a human who experienced loneliness, wrestled with doubts, and loved sweets...This personal portrait is by turns autobiographical, biographical, and devotional. Especially moving are the stories of Mother Teresa's vivid calling through a vision, her dark night of the soul, and her final decline. -Booklist Though Towey's personal, transformative relationship with Mother Teresa forms the central theme, he also offers a fascinating inside look into Mother Teresa's daily life...Inspiring and joyful. -Kirkus Review