STORY OF A BOOK COVER.

In 1998, Ed Sousa, from West Warwick, Rhode Island had traveled with me on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia. Since my story contained our many spiritual adventures on our journey together to this holy village, he had encouraged me, through the years, to finish my memoir A Healing Heart.Ed had been aware of my search to find a special picture for my book cover. We both knew that the cover for a book had to catch the attention of the buyer.He had contacted his son, Greg Sousa, who is a professional photographer living in Fort Myers, Florida. I wanted a picture that would produce a very tranquil scene.Greg was wonderful and had offered me several pictures from his collection for me to consider for my book cover. They all had been serene but something seemed missing.Without Greg saying a word to anyone, he took his camera and sat on a pier facing Sanibel Island in Florida. He closed his eyes and prayed to God to send him the right picture for A Healing Heart. After an hour of mediating, he snapped a picture of the clouds above the island. He did not study the sky to see what was facing him.It was not until he went back to develop the picture, that he saw the view of the sky for the first time. The picture displayed a magnificent form of clouds above Sanibel Island. The red rays that were bursting out from under the huge cloud, looked like flames of fire shooting down on the earth and upon the water.The more we studied it, the more it became a perfect picture. Every detail of the cloud had matched each side so precisely, that it looked like the picture had been folded in half.Can our eyes play tricks on us? Perhaps, but to me this picture is miraculous. Prayer is stronger than people realize. Greg prayed, believed, asked, and received. I had no doubt after seeing this picture that this was also a gift to me; not only from Greg, but from God.Our eyes can also see what they want at times. I look above the gifted cloud and see a glowing gold crown encircled with the same red flames.Will this picture on my cover catch the eye of the reader? I will have to wait and see. But for now, I'm proud to see A Healing Heart by Alberta Sequeira written across the cover. http://www.ahealingheart.net/

*Photo is of Edward and Donna Sousa's son, Greg Sousa, the chief photographer for Argus News in Goldsboro, North Carolina, who took the picture of the cover photo for author Alberta Sequeira's book A Healing Heart.