The worst thing that could happen to Ann Williams has: Her beloved only child Ethan has been snatched away at the tender age of 21, killed in a preventable automobile crash.

In Marsha A. Willis’ heart-wrenching new book, The Ethan Chronicles: Requiem for a Life Stolen, readers join the inner circle of Ethan’s family as it struggles to come to grips with an overpowering loss and make sense of the tragedy that ended a promising young man’s life.

Willis--program director of a Denver company that advises organizations on matters of U.S./Latin American business and trade, and vice president of the Ethan Foundation, dedicated to raising public awareness of traffic safety--is actually "Ann Williams" in the book. She reports that even though her book is a work of "creative nonfiction," she remained true to the story as it unfolded to her. Written during the early days of her most intense grief, it reflects her perceptions and understanding of what transpired.

Resting one lovely Colorado spring day, Ann receives the dreaded phone call urging her to the hospital. She is the first to learn her only child has been killed. She senses her son in the wind, hears him in the songs of the birds, and wonders: "Where is Ethan now? Where has he gone?" Her soul enjoys no respite. Listening to speakers at his memorial service she is moved to learn how Ethan, who had been working for his stepfather in a satellite business and writing a book, had positively affected family and friends—even the volunteer firefighters who held him as he died.

The rest of the family—Ethan’s stepfather Mark, his father Doug, and his wife Jennifer—are also paralyzed by the loss. Each attempts in his own way to work through the pain and try to put the pieces of their lives back together. A friend’s father tells Ann: "Salt water is the only cure for grief—you can sweat it out, cry it out, or go to sea." The monumental task seems magnified when the family discovers the traffic "accident" originally attributed to Ethan was not his fault but, in all probability, preventable.

It occurred at a new development turnoff, commonly known to be poorly platted and marked. The young driver of the car who hit Ethan’s truck as it was turning into the already dangerous intersection was a vehicular menace the judicial system had opted not to remove from the road. He was reportedly going almost 90 miles per hour in a 40-mile-an-hour zone.

Although Willis used creative license in reproducing the thoughts and conversations of others involved—law enforcement officials, relatives of the wayward driver, and various community members—the book revolves around many indisputable facts: Ethan’s life and death, the dangerous and controversial intersection at which he was killed, media quotes, and judicial transcripts and outcomes. The Clear Mountain Communications Agency wrote, "This book has all the classic elements that make a great drama: a run-in with fate, human beings thrown into the most tragic of circumstances, huge stakes, unwitting pawns, moral lassitude. And overreaching it all is an eternal and transcendent love."

How Williams—Willis’ alter-ego—survives the weeks and months following the tragedy is painful, yet entrancing. The Ethan Chronicles: Requiem for a Life Stolen reminds us to love and appreciate our children with our whole being because we can lose them in an instant.

Don’t miss this poignant tale. Powerfully written and deeply moving, it will forever and profoundly change you.

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The following review of The Ethan Chronicles: Requiem for a Life Stolen is by Catherine Lazers Bauer. Ms. Bauer is a contributing editor for periodicals such as the Christian Science Monitor, Bloomsbury Review, the Providence Journal and Colorado Homes and Lifestyles.

With moving eloquence and graphic vividness, Marsha Willis writes about the death of her twenty-one-year-old son in a senseless automobile accident. Her tone is, in turn, despairing, furious, uncomprehending, and filled with unconditional love.

Her own introduction best defines Willis’s subject and purpose: "The Ethan Chronicles is based on factual occurrences as interpreted through my eyes. As such it is a work of ‘creative nonfiction’." Nevertheless, she points out, her story is true and factual as it relates to the life and death of Ethan, the dangerousness of the intersection, quotes from the media, findings of the trials, transcripts of the sentencing hearing, conversations of friends and family as well as the emotional devastation wrought upon Ethan’s loved ones.

It is her hope that the book might provide valuable insight to parents, drivers, friends of grieving parents, and to members of educational, legal, law enforcement and engineering professions.

In this reviewer’s opinion, Marsha Willis succeeds in this formidable undertaking. While her style is smooth and her choice of language is exquisite, it is her absolute honesty that gives the story power.
The book is formatted in three parts: (1) "The End" deals with Ethan’s sudden death and its devastating impact upon family and friends. (2) "Who Killed Cock Robin?" unveils hidden intricacies of the accident and blame shifts from Ethan to Matthew Felton, driver of the other vehicle. (3) "More Dangerous the Fool" reveals Matt Felton as a dangerous threat to society. Even his family refuses to see the truth concerning his perpetual problems with substance abuse, reckless driving, and run-ins with the law.

The reader is taken down the circuitous path of pain, frustration, mystery, and redemption. One comes to know intimately Ethan’s mother (Ann in the story), father, stepfather, and mate. Ann’s overwhelming love for this perfect son is epitomized in the dream she had just before he died—"a dream full of golden light and laughter…a divine visit…love and joy as powerful and pure as she’d ever known. She’d often thought she and Ethan were soul mates, if such a thing existed."

Small wonder this woman’s anger possessed her being! One can understand the mother’s frustration when she cries out, "If there was some sort of divine intelligence at work…then what the hell’s the point of being taught a lesson you can’t possibly understand or apply?"

One can also understand Ethan’s father’s warning, "How much time are you going to devote to obsessing about this?" The reminder that Ethan wouldn’t want them to live on in pain and sorrow is met with the rejoinder, "I know, but I’m his mother."

Overall the saga moves along like a mystery thriller, with only certain portions becoming somewhat tedious in the scrupulous attention given to delving into the intricacies of the accident, the Felton family history, and lawsuits involving Matt’s former accidents.

After hearings, testimonies, a mistrial, and several postponements, the second trial (two years and four months after Ethan died) wrapped up the case in the eyes of the law. Ann, however, continued to wrestle with fate.

In a closing dialogue reminiscent of Ann’s dream before the accident, mother and son know a communion of souls. Ethan’s final plea, "Choose Love….Keep your mind and heart open," is yet received ambivalently with a questioning mind and a trusting soul.