Hope for the Hurting
Award-winning Author blesses campus with positive message
By Chrystal Houston

Award winning author Ann Pai spent two days lecturing on the York College campus last week. She spoke in chapel and in classes, presented at an evening reception in the Cornerstone Room, and met with students for an afternoon in the Spiritual Life Center. Pai was doing more than promoting her new book, My Other Body: a memoir of Love, fat, life, and death--which recently won the Writer’s Digest International Book of the Year award for Self-Published books; she was also bringing an important message to the student body.

Pai spoke a message of hope to those that are hurting, reminding them of their inherent worth as people, no matter what their particular struggles may be. “I think the story is powerful, not of itself, but because we all have challenges in the body, and we all love people that have challenges,” she said.

Pai’s book is a memoir about her sister, Joyce, who died five years ago from complications due to overweight. “The tragedy wasn’t that she died, that’s something that happens to everyone. The tragedy was that she had so much more to give and her body wouldn’t let her,” said Pai. “My sister did not die of overweight, she died because she would not ask for help.” Pai stressed the importance of support people in everyone’s lives, and the need to love each other through our challenges.

Pai’s book also deals with her own struggles with a compulsive eating disorder and her battle to live a healthy lifestyle. “I have a weight consequence, not a weight problem. The real problems take a little longer to get to the root of,” she explained.

Pai is currently working a novel. More information on Pai and her book may be found at her website, www.sunspotpress.com. Copies of her book are $15, and may be purchased on-line, or on campus from Dr. Larry Van Meter.