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A Thousand Hands But One
How GOD Prepared a CATHOLIC Chaplain For the Surrender She Never Expected
Laura Riccardi
Memoir
She held the hands of a thousand patients as a Catholic chaplain—offering prayer, comfort, and Christ’s presence in their final hours. But when her own beloved husband was hospitalized during the Covid-19 pandemic, Laura found herself separated from him at the very moment he needed her most, when rigid hospital policies left no room for loved ones at the bedside.
In A Thousand Hands But One, she shares a deeply personal journey of faith tested in suffering. Years of ministering to the sick had been quietly preparing her for a surrender she never expected: entrusting her husband Len to God’s mercy when she could not be there to hold his hand.
As she wrestled with grief, Laura encountered others whose families endured similar separations—voices that deepen this moving witness to love, loss, and spiritual resilience. Heartbreaking yet hope-filled, this memoir reveals how surrender to God’s will can transform even the most painful absence into a path toward grace, trust, and enduring hope.
Where human hands fall away, God’s grace remains.
Who is
A.J. Neal Publishing
A.J. Neal Publishing is an independent publishing company dedicated to bringing distinctive stories and ideas to readers.
Our titles span fiction, satire, memoir, faith, culture, and family—books that entertain, challenge, inspire, and sometimes look at the world from a decidedly different angle.
Founded by author Christopher Holl, A.J. Neal Publishing is home to The Kano, The Teacher, & The Lola: A Filipino-American Fable, The Schiff Who Cried Wolf…Blitzer, Attack of the Theys, and other original works, including A Thousand Hands But One by Laura Riccardi.
Independent books. Original voices. Stories worth telling.