In Self Help? No Thanks, I Can Do It Myself: Surviving Life's Journey Dorothy Louise Gagnon shares her poignant collection of memories, musings, reactions, essays, poems, and diary entries that detail her incredible true story of survival through tragedy and hardship to personal growth and spiritual insight. Set against the rural backdrop of southeastern Ontario, Gagnon's journey begins with her birth in a Saskatchewan convent and continues through her adoption into a family when she was five. As her story unfolds, she conveys not only the caring, sometimes funny, and always interesting characters that helped shape her life, but also the excruciating heartache that accompanied the untimely deaths of her family members and the loss of two homes before she was twelve. She divulges how she and her husband Bruce raised two challenging children and attempted to create a better life for all of them, only to lose their son to a fatal car accident. In an effort to help others through their own trials, Gagnon shares her innermost thoughts on how she tried to make sense of each misfortune and the valuable lessons she learned in the process.
Gagnon provides insight into how her life experiences have shaped her destiny, her personality, and her future, reminding others how important inner-strength is to surviving even the most difficult circumstances.