Joyfully Retired

Zig-Zagging: A Memoir

Loving Madly, Losing Badly . . . How Ziggy Saved My Life

By Tom Wilson

Health Communication, Inc., 2009

Zig-Zagging is both a heart-breaking and heart-warming story of Tom Wilson. As Tom says, he is  the ‘little brother’ of Ziggy, but in actuality he is the one who draws Ziggy. There is a lot packed inside this bright yellow volume. Let me list a few:

• We meet the creator of Ziggy, Tom Wilson, Sr. and hear how the father involved his son, at a young age, in Ziggy’s creation. Although it wasn’t intentional, this was good preparation for the son. As his father’s health declined “Tom II” had to take over completing the drawings and eventually the entire cartoon business.
• In his sophmore year of college Tom met Susan Shepard who would become his wife. They finished college, married and had two sons. Tom created his own cartoon, UG. They were living the good life. And then breast cancer struck Susan. With unbelievable strength and determination, she fought it for seven years until finally dying in Tom’s arms.
• Tom honestly did not see his wife’s death coming and it threw him into a tailspin. At first he donned his superman cape and carried on but then depression overtook him. It overwhelmed him until he was nearly non-functional. He hired a nanny to take care of the boys but he did not take care of himself. He missed cartoon deadlines and was close to losing Ziggy.

With all that Tom had on his plate it is no wonder depression hit. This section of the book really hit a cord with me – in particular, his description of his relationship with God. I’ve suffered my fair share of losses in my life and I swear I have said the same things about God that Tom said,

At the time I was anything other than indifferent about God. I truly felt entitled to be angry and hurt by what appeared to be His indifference to me.

I kept trying to figure out why. Why do these things happen? . . . How could such a God completely ignore the prayers and the pleadings . . ?

These times can severely test our faith. Tom’s road to recovery was painful, is still painful. Without giving away the conclusion, I will tell you that Tom learned some valuable lessons. I think these lessons will be valuable for others as well. Its been my experience  that loss comes in many forms, not always from death. For example, the grieving process (and often depression) can be experienced with the loss of a job or other life disasters. As mentioned in the book, life is not always fair. This is a timely book.

I already have someone in mind to whom I’m going to give this book. Then I’m going to purchase an extra copy to have on hand for someone else in a similar situation. If you would like to win a copy of this book, go here. But hurry because the drawing ends March 31. For a more personal look at Tom Wilson there is an excellent short video here. I’d like to thank Lisa at TLC Book Tours for allowing me to be a part of this special tour.