A real-life account of one family’s uplifting story of crisis, faith, and growth

I kept playing, hardly noticing when Elisheva answered the phone. “Hello,” she said. Then, after a pause, “Oh my gosh! What happened?” Another pause.

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”

That must be her friend Sara, I thought. To those eighth-graders, everything deserves an ‘Oh my gosh’ or two.

But when she hung up she turned to me and cried, “Chana Rochel! That was Ahuva! She’s in the emergency room with baby Yaakov. He’s not breathing, and he has no pulse! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! What will we do?!”

“What?! Oh my gosh! My two-month-old nephew with no pulse?” I felt my heart flutter to a stop. “What do you mean?” I spluttered. “How can that be?! What happened to him?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!”

*******

In Hold On Tight, Chana Rochel Rubinstein shares with us the true account of her family’s journey through a heart-wrenching crisis. With her simple, straightforward style, we are immediately drawn into her family’s life, reliving their ups and downs, their challenges and pain, as well as their happy occasions and ‘ordinary’ day-to-day lives.

But what starts out as one crisis soon turns into something far more.

When tiny Chaim Yaakov Goldbaum suffers sudden cardiac arrest, no one knows what the next few hours will bring. Will he live? Will he die? Will he be normal?

What will be?

Chaim Yaakov’s story will become your story; you too will be moved by his unique neshamah and its life mission. Day after day, the Goldbaums put one foot in front of the other, with determination, courage, and strength, holding on tight to their emunah while caring for Chaim Yaakov’s unceasing needs. The grace and dignity with which they accept Hashem’s decree is a lesson every person can gain from, long after the last page of this poignant book has been read and internalized.

By Chana Rochel Rubinstein