“This book from Liz Shaw-Stabler brings passion, guidance, and hope to the struggle of people suffering from chronic illnesses. Liz has spent decades battling systemic lupus, even enduring kidney failure and the challenges of living each day after day when she feels ill and then the near-miracle of kidney transplant—and all of the effects on the living of life. Liz is greatly admired by all who know her—a fighter, dedicated not only to personally overcoming illness, but also to bringing health care to people of color—a group that SLE strikes particularly hard. Shaw-Stabler is a professional educator and a passionate advocate, devoting hundreds of hours to founding LupusCare, which provides education and group meetings for a community in Los Angeles that is rich in African American and Latino families—a community that needs much better access to health care and health education. This book is another step in the battle. Read it to understand, to learn, and to discover how one person can influence the battle for personal and public health. Finally, read it to be inspired and to be moved to action. This book and its author are national treasures”—Bevra H Hahn, MD Professor of Medicine Chief of Rheumatology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Great Admirer of Liz Stabler-Shaw Los Angeles, California, June 2010. “Lupus is a life-altering experience and wisdom provided our teachers and mentors can be enabling and empowering. Liz Shaw-Stabler has helped hundreds of women with her reassuring advice”—Daniel J. Wallace, MD, FACP, FACR Chief of Rheumatology at Cedares-Sinai Medical Center Liz Shaw-Stabler was born in East Texas and received her undergraduate degree from Prairie View A and M University. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began her career immediately after graduation. After living in Chicago for a few years, teaching high school, acquiring a Master’s Degree and doing freelance modeling, she slowed down long enough to get married. She is the mother of one daughter who resides in Chicago. Liz now lives with her husband, Jay, in Inglewood, California, where she became the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Lupus Care Incorporated and organization that advocates for under-served lupus patients. Liz is a thirty-year lupus patient and has suffered many life-threatening illnesses but continued to believe that she was created to do something much bigger than her illness.