When Kim Rambacher lost the paper mementos of his wife Marcia on the beach in Florida, he never thought he’d see them again. But somehow, he got a letter from a woman named Cindy who said she found the papers and sent them back to him.
“It was the first of many miracles that I saw and other people saw,” said Rambacher, who hails from Bemus Point.
Those miracles are the basis for his book, Miracle Marcia, which commemorates his wife who passed away in 2015 after a 17-year battle with breast cancer. He decided to write a book to share her story and inspire others going through similar circumstances, and will be signing books at noon Sunday at the Chautauqua Bookstore.
The book, told by Rambacher and written by Patricia Pihl, touches on how the Rambachers met, their life together and the way Marcia dealt with her cancer. Rambacher said her Christian faith helped her cope with her illness and a Bible passage accompanies almost every chapter. He also said through it all, Marcia still retained her humor. In one chapter titled “Comic Relief,” he recounts how Marcia reacted after her doctor told her she didn’t need to wear a bra anymore.
“She whipped that thing off and threw it right in the wastebasket in front of other people,” Rambacher said. “That is so typical of her. … That’s the way she was, she brightened everybody’s spirits.”
In one of the last chapters, Rambacher discusses how although teachers at Bemus Point Junior/Senior High School (where Marcia was a former employee) donated 55 sick days for Marcia, she did not use any of them because she didn’t want to take them away from others.
That selfless and generous attitude is exactly what Rambacher hopes to pass on to readers, regardless of whether or not they have dealt with cancer.
Rambacher also said the book has already made an impact. At a book signing, a man from Pittsburgh decided to buy the book as he, his wife and his siblings all went through breast cancer and he wanted to bring it back to his family.
However, Rambacher said there is always more people to influence through the book, and he hopes the book signing at Chautauqua will spread Marcia’s life story and message even more.
“Four or five days before she passed she goes to me, ‘Kim, I wish I would’ve touched more people.’ I go, ‘Are you kidding me, Marcia? You have no clue how many people that you touched.’ And she goes, ‘Well, I could have touched more,’ ” Rambacher said. “With this book she can reach these people [and] with the book signing at Chautauqua, … I just wanted to keep her memory alive through her words.”
