Total Pardon: An Extraordinary Love Story

Description

Why would a squeaky clean, evangelical Christian woman from Ohio fall madly in love with a hopeless alcoholic Native American ex-con with the last known address of Skid Row, USA? Her idyllic childhood was plagued by illness, yet filled with unconditional love and support. His childhood was splintered by divorce, plagued by poverty, fueled by superstition and filled with disappointment. Two individuals could not be more different, yet Wil Yazzie and Linda Amyx married each other not once-but twice. An inmate who starts out a pen pal and ends up a husband-there’s a lot that could go wrong in that situation. Strangers who become lovers because they bared their souls to one another in a string of me-then-you, you-then-me chain letters…come on! It’s completely romantic, or it’s a scam. The notion of falling in love through letter writing is sketchy territory, but in Wil and Linda’s case, it turned out to be sacred territory. What began as a casual voyeuristic peek into another person’s life turned into an unpredictable mixture of extreme heartache and extraordinary blessing. When two people find unexpected tenderness, vulnerability and true love behind prison bars, the relationship is not only rare, it’s fascinating. He was a hopeless alcoholic whose addictions robbed him of decades of his life, yet he goes from career criminal to Hollywood actor and devoted minister with a message. If it weren’t for the unconditional love and faithful prayers of his wife Linda, Wil would be dead-like most of his drinking buddies. Total Pardon is a true reversal-of-destiny story that offers radical hope for those struggling with addiction. With life lessons on nearly every page and thought provoking discussion questions for each chapter, this book is a must-read for substance abuse counselors, social workers and youth ministers, as well as anyone who has struggled with or has a family member struggling with addiction. There are far too many relevant counseling and parenting tips to ignore this amazing true story. Wil Yazzie was born in Phoenix, Arizona and grew up on the Navajo Nation reservation. He attended the BIA boarding school in Shiprock, New Mexico and the Chilocco School for Indians in Oklahoma. He got his degree in social work from the University of Cincinnati and went on to become a Hollywood actor after founding several social programs for Native Americans in California. He and Linda currently live in Newcomb, New Mexico where they growing their ministry, Christ Is The Answer (CITA), a ministry based on the Celebrate Recovery program. Linda Yazzie grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio where she worked as an elementary school librarian’s assistant. She is an ordained minister with International Ministerial Fellowship (IMF) and an artist. Co-author, Jodie Randisi, is a screenwriter and the author or coauthor of four books. Jodie taught Navajo Indians at the Chinle Boarding School in Many Farms, Arizona in 1979.