Malachy is a celebration of a short but extraordinary life.
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Malachy explores the bond of love between parent and child. It reminds us how treasured and important all children are.
Malachy touches what it means to love and be loved, and inspires the reader to
stare down hostile fate with humour
and embrace life with courage and resilience.
A single moment has the power to change any life, forever. This is a story about what happens next.
On 1st March 1999, Dom Frawley was a rural general practitioner, providing medical care to a few hundred families through a small cottage practice. He and his wife Maggie were due to deliver their fourth child any day. Dom worked daily with people at their most vulnerable: sick, powerless, and often fearful or distressed. His job was to help carry them through.
By nightfall on 2nd March, Dom and Maggie were the ones needing help. Their newborn child was critically ill, flown by helicopter to an intensive care unit in Sydney. The baby’s life rested in the hands of Dom’s former colleagues.
Praise for ‘MALACHY’
STEVE BIDDULPH
All around us, though we don't always know it, are parents whose children are not well. Who have anguish and grief mixed with the normal travails of raising a child. Some of these parents become able to rise up through that and muster an extra lovingness that means a hard life, or a tragically short life, can still be a beautiful one. Suffering doesn't have to break us. It can teach us to love. A beautifully written book about a beautifully loved child: this family did something special under huge stress, and we can all take heart from it.
STEVE BIDDULPH AM, author of Fully Human, and Raising Boys.
A.L.TAIT
Joy and grief, philosophy and faith, and the everlasting bond between father and son. Through one life, Frawley explores the things that make us – and almost break us.
ALLISON TAIT (A.L. Tait) is the internationally published bestselling author of middle-grade adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles and the Ateban Cipher, and her new novel The Fire Star
SIMON REEVE
The beautiful boy staring out from the book cover was sunshine itself. I was lucky to meet Malachy in an all too familiar setting for Maggie and Dom, at Sydney's Westmead hospital. Malachy stole your heart in an instant. He'd be very proud of his Dad and his family, who have crafted an exquisite tribute to his remarkable life.With an eloquence and insight that comes in part from overwhelming pain and loss, Dom has writtena book that speaks to all the complexities of the human experience.This is so much more than a guide-book to being the parents of a Heartkid, it's a deeply profound memoir about the meaning of life. In his life, Malachy bestowed his special gifts on everyone who knew him. With this magnificent book, Dom conveys the Malachy magic to all, reminding us again that we can never take a single day for granted.
SIMON REEVE is an Australian television presenter, journalist, podcaster and HeartKids Ambassador
PROFESSOR DAVID S WINLAW
A beautiful book and an eye-opener for all of us involved in the care of children with heart problems. Always well-intentioned but often messy, their story is a good reminder of how we can improve. Dom and Maggie’s relationship with Malachy, and their investment of precious time in the development of HeartKids, both have interesting back-stories. Their loss is enormous. Dom’s thoughtful humanity shines as a guiding light throughout.
DAVID WINLAW is a researcher, Professor of Surgery, and cardiothoracic surgeon, based at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Dr STEPHEN COOPER
This is a very interesting book. It details the very close relationship between a father and son, perhaps intensified by the fact that Malachy had a major cardiac anomaly. On that level it provides an insight into the effect of a major illness on a family and the interactions that result from that. On another level however it clarifies the impact of a serious cardiac condition on the child and his place in the world.
While only a very small percentage of children with heart conditions are affected in this way, I think this book informs both the medical community and the patient group on this interaction and provides a very valuable insight into the effect of severe heart disease on the child, the family and his community. From my point of view it clarifies aspects of the doctor/patient relationship from the patient’s perspective: an area that undoubtedly warrants further examination!
This is a “must read” for all medical professionals looking after patients like Malachy. It is likely to be of interest to other parents of children with severe cardiac conditions and particularly to potential parents in whom a cardiac condition has been identified antenatally. I would hope that a book like this enables us to improve our support of such families through a journey that at times can be extremely difficult.
STEPHEN COOPER is a paediatric cardiologist.
DIANNE McKISSOCK
‘Malachy, A Father’s Story of Love, Laughter and Loss’ by Dominic Frawley is an unforgettable experience.
Dom’s sensitive and gifted writing style engaged me from the very beginning so that I felt as if I was involved heart and soul in the journey of Malachy’s lifetime. The family dynamic that was created by six intelligent, creative, generous, loving and adventurous people enabled Malachy to achieve his potential as a human being for fourteen plus years, to pack into those years more quality of life than many folk do if they live to be a hundred. Dom enables the reader to experience his son undefended, to see the world through his eyes, so I feel as if I know him, and as if I know his beautiful family.
‘Words are our tools of resurrection’ is a quote I love from a character in a book by Pip Williams - ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’. Dom has used his words of love, loss and grief beautifully to do just that – to bring Malachy back into life again, into his life, and into the lives of everyone who has the courage to fully experience this touching tribute to a precious son.
DIANNE McKISSOCK OAM, Co-Founder and Patron of the Bereavement Care Centre and the National Centre for Childhood Grief, author of Coping with Grief, is a sociologist, relationship counsellor, and grief therapist.
Dr CINDY PAN
Dominic Frawley’s loving elegy to his cherished son is deeply moving. It is a beautiful celebration of young Malachy’s life and the family who adored him. As it moves from heart-warming to heart-rending...to heart-wrenching, there are also moments where you will laugh out loud. (‘They’re crying! Get the social worker!’ had me chortling and smiling for some time.) Ultimately, Malachy’s is a supremely uplifting story of an irrepressible soul, beloved forever and immortalised in this tribute.
CINDY PAN is a medical practitioner, best-selling author and media personality.