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Beach Reads: 'Joshua's Ring'

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - This week's summer Beach Reads title is a story about faith and a love that knows no bounds.

"Joshua's Ring" is the true story of a teenage boy who, after dying from a brief illness, continues to let his mother, Rose, know he's still around.

Author Marie Murphy Duess said she first didn't want to write the book because she didn't think she could do the story justice.

Beach Reads: Joshua's Ring

She told WCBS 880's Pat Farnack that she changed her mind after getting a sign or two of her own.

PF: Part of the message of [the book] was that loved ones who die are not lost to us.

MD: Yes, they wanted to honor Joshua in a book, but when I said yes that I would write the book, two days later, Rose came to the house with two shopping bags filled with journals and diaries and letters...and they felt that they were receiving I'm not going to say miracles, but answers to prayers...I think one of the most inexplicable is the fact that Joshua's face shows up on photographs.

PF: You're saying face?

MD: Yes. I have to admit to you that it's hard to see it. But then she took a pencil and she lightly circled the area and as soon as she did, it was as clear as day. I don't want anybody to think that this is a ghost story. It's a love story. It's a love story given to us from these two people who have lost their eldest son and who have learned to cope with this devastation so that people who may be afraid of death or who are grieving the death of a loved one may be able to find some comfort in this story.

For more on the author, visit www.marieduess.com and www.historypress.net.

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