As a new year approached Jennifer Bonner embraced college life and flourished as a visual artist. Childhood heart problems rarely clouded her thoughts. Then unusual fatigue led to terrifying news. Without a heart transplant she would die soon. As she put it, "The bomb dropped today."

While she waited most of 1988 for a new heart she lived. And as she relished each day she wrote. Her diary entries frankly address love sex friendship art and mortality and reveal a young woman determined to thrive.

Poignant irreverent and bold The Wait is Jen's diary framed by the stories of her remarkable family and heart surgery advances. Steady medical progress brought her two decades of life and hope for decades more. But Jen's continued survival depended on chance events that she and her doctors couldn't control.

 

Jennifer Bonner majored in art at Carleton College. Born with severe heart defects she nevertheless lived a full and joyful adolescence with her parents Bob and Barbara and her brother Tim. She spent most of 1988 waiting to receive a heart transplant.