Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away

Lugenia Lightle celebrates the beautiful life of her thirteen year-old daughter, Shaina, while counting down the tense-filled hours at the hospital during Shaina’s last day on earth. Ms. Lightle’s book doesn’t sugar coat the grieving process, but it does show that life gets better and that perhaps the best medicine is to never lose hope and to learn forgiveness.

Lugenia Lightle celebrates the beautiful life of her thirteen year-old daughter, Shaina, while counting down the tense-filled hours at the hospital during Shaina’s last day on earth. In addition, Ms. Lightle leads us through her own grieving process and how she eventually learned to forgive. As readers, we feel the shock and anger when the doctors tell the family that Shaina is not going to live. We feel the tension between Ms. Lightle and her brother’s family. We feel the love and support of Ms. Lightle’s husband, Ed. We get to know Shaina up close and personal, including how she learned to march to the beat of her own drum, despite being bullied at school. Ms. Lightle wants us to know that Shaina had more than one purpose but that maybe her most important one was to fill her family’s heart with enough love in thirteen short years to last them a lifetime, and that in Ms. Lightle’s heart she was and will forever be her “Shaina Bug”.

Lugenia Lynn Lightle was born April 21, 1960 and lived in a small town south of Columbus, Ohio. Lightle started writing stories as a youngster. Her favorite place to write was a loft over her parents' garage. Lightle continued writing until she graduated high school then put writing aside to get married and raise a family. When her youngest daughter asked her to make up stories at bedtime, Lightle started writing them down. Since then she has written a variety of stories for children, from toddlers to teenagers. Lightle has had two books published: RUGUMA: New to America and Rockie Stoneshaker and the Haunted Castle. Asked where she gets her inspiration, Lightle said many of her characters come to her in her dreams.