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Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family. This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt? Two traumatized families describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found. And Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings. This book weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.--From publisher description.… (more)
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This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment,
The story is compelling. It was brilliant to start with the prologue that brings you to the hours leading up to the reunion of Whitney with her own family. This let the reader know that this book was not written for some kind of dramatic effect, but for the telling of a real story. The climax of the book is right at the beginning to allow the rest of the book to be about the details. Identifying Whitney as Laura (rather than the girl we thought was Laura) throughout the first part of the story really allowed the reader to live in the Van Ryans' world as much as possible. This was critical to allowing the reader be a part of the emotional ups and downs in this book.
As I read this story, I couldn't help but find myself imagining being in either families shoes(and praying that I wouldn't be). I found myself choked up repeatedly throughout this book and even shaking my head in disbelief even in the face of what I new what was coming.
Thank you Ceraks and Van Ryans for being faithful followers of Christ when it mattered and for being willing to share this story. You have somehow managed to convey an exceeding amount of humility and faith through this that can not be faked.
The book was a good and fast read however, I don't think I'll ever fully comprehend how the Van Ryns could spend every single day for 5 straight weeks with Whitney as she recovered thinking she was actually their daughter, Laura. I do see how it may have been difficult to know during the first few days when Whitney was kept in a low-light ICU setting but once she was moved to a regular room I feel like it should have been obvious. Both Whitney and Laura do have striking physical similarities, HOWEVER, I just can't fathom how a mother could NOT know her own child or a sibling could NOT know her own sister. I guess I will never understand that piece of this story.
One of the problems with this style of book is the flat character, caused by the fact that the "characters" are real people who will read and have input into the final product. Much of this is overcome in this case by
The book tells the story but I find little hope in it. I guess that this style of book is simply not my normal choice. for those who like this sort of thing I would suggest that this is on of the better ones.
the basic story is of two girls involved in a car crash only one survived. The bodies were misidentified and the wrong name was given to the one who remainined. This led to one family believeing they had buried thier daughter while a different one belied that she was infact thier daughter. this in the end had to come to light
Let that sink in a minute. The Cerak family had buried "Whitney" weeks earlier, and her mother, Colleen, gets a phone call at 2:00 a.m. saying that there is reason to believe her daughter is actually alive.
Let that sink in a minute.
Mistaken Identity was co-written by the Ceraks and the Van Ryn families, and it is just an incredible story. Had it not been true and this had been a novel, I'd have thought it implausible.
All the little questions I had during the intense media coverage of this a couple years ago were answered. Things like, "Okay, so they were both blond and attractive, but they don't look that much alike," and "How could a mother not know her own child?" There were, in fact, little things that in hindsight should have been utter giveaways, but when you don't have any reason to believe that it is not your daughter lying in that bed in a coma, you just accept as fluke-y, and the fact the Van Ryns did so is totally understandable.
All those details are fascinating -- the fact that Laura's sister thought it odd that none of the clothes she got at the hospital that her sister had been wearing were things she recognized; the difference in the teeth (not noticed for weeks because a respirator was in her mouth, and then dismissed as possibly related to the violence of the wreck knocking things askew); the fact that "Laura" had a pierced belly-button and her sister was sure she'd have told her if she'd done that.
It is only at the end of the grueling 5 weeks, when "Laura" begins talking that questions arise. The fact that she calls out names the Van Ryns don't recognize is explained away by the nurses as "her neurons are firing, but not firing correctly, so who knows where that name came from?" With no real reason to doubt that "Laura" isn't "Laura," I have a feeling I'd have let it go, too.
Mistaken Identity truly captures the roller-coaster of emotions of both these families, and what became their tender care of each other when the unimaginable mistake was discovered. What is most amazing is the very obvious comfort the faith of both these families brought them in their most devastating moments.
While I can't say this book is brilliantly written, it is raw, and it is real, and it is stunning.
All the Bible talk got me annoyed and as someone else also mentioned, we still do not know how come they did not recognise there own daughter for 5 weeks!
Another thing I wonder
The
This is when the story becomes almost unbelievable....the family that attend the hospital don't realise that it is not their daughter/sister/relative that has survived. They recognise the girl in the hospital as their own family member even though she is not. It is only when the girl is finally able to start communicating that she writes her real name down and the truth is revealed...
I don't know whether the family just wanted their daughter to be alive so much that they ignored the signs or whether they didn't consider the alternative. Some extended family members did raise concerns and there were signs along the way that this was not their family member but they refused to accept them.
Both families are Christian and I think this helps them to deal with the situation when the truth is revealed. I just found the whole idea a bit creepy and more like something from a movie than real life. I guess I just found it hard to believe that two people could look so alike that their family members could get them confused even after a car accident. I found it even more odd when looking at the pictures of the two girls they don't look at all alike. It's just terrible for the family that thought they were at the bedside of their daughter when actually she had already died.
Incredible story, seemingly unbelievable...