Warrior Strong

Jennifer Robinson had already come through Lyme disease, a chronic illness, with her optimism intact, so when a new year began she greeted it with hope and a long list of plans. She lived for get-togethers with family and friends, adventurous trips, and dinner parties in her comfortable home in what is often called Middle America. When the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl, her house was the place to be. By March, though, the lights had gone out on basketball courts, stadiums, offices, and classrooms around the globe.

The pandemic put pressure on the life Jennifer had carefully rebuilt, along with the upbeat persona that went with it. She had already written a short book about her road back to physical and spiritual wellness after a near-fatal brush with death before 2018, and in it she called herself a Joy Warrior. In 2020 she needed that unseen armor more than ever as isolation and a deadly virus spread. The virus was only one of the curveballs that year threw at her family. The murder of George Floyd hit this mixed-race household hard, and a small tumor was growing in the brain of her usually unshakable husband.

Writing with instructive metaphors, plenty of dry wit, and a deep affection for humanity, Jennifer shows readers how to keep going when obstacles seem overwhelming. She did not simply ride out the setbacks of Covid. She spoke out publicly and took a stand against long-standing prejudice and injustice. A woman of white privilege, she finds herself challenging the status quo in her middle-class neighborhood, discovering what her children and husband had always feared.