Author Megan Nix to speak at Park City parish

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SALT LAKE CITY — Sometimes the life experiences of Christians reaffirm for them that God has a different timeline than human beings. Megan Nix, a mother of five and an Eastern Orthodox Catholic, learned this for herself after her second child, Anna, was born with profound deafness. She wrote about her experience in a memoir, Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth. Her writing also has appeared in publications such as The New York Times and the Boston Globe, and she regularly makes presentations to health professionals about congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV).

Nix will be at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Park City on May 23 to give a presentation titled “Waiting Through the Deserts of Life.”

After Nix discovered that Anna had CMV, the most common infectious cause of birth defects in the United States, she began a process of educating herself. Along the way she learned that CMV is prevalent in the saliva of toddlers, and pregnant women can avoid exposure simply by not finishing their toddlers’ snacks, refraining from kissing them on the lips while they are pregnant and washing their hands more frequently. She also discovered that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had recommended not telling pregnant women about CMV and how easily it can be prevented, deeming it impractical and burdensome for them to take these simple precautions, she said.

“When I went to research it, I was just blown away by the obstetrical industry’s lack of faith in women and mothers specifically,” she said. “I knew that mothers have more capacity than any other humans on earth, especially when they are pregnant.”

Outraged, Nix determined to write a book about her experience to educate other mothers about CMV and the medical establishment’s complacency towards it. Having written it, she endured seven years of publisher rejections before it was accepted by Doubleday and published last December.

“It kept getting rejected left and right, and it was like God was saying, ‘Not yet; not yet,’” she said. “I was really anxious; I wanted people to know our story, and it felt to me like every day that went by there were more children born with CMV. I really had to just wait through these painful periods of discernment and look closer at my writing.”

While Nix was searching for a publisher, her mother unexpectedly fell ill and died. Enduring both experiences at once was painful and a desert of sorts in Nix’s life, she said. “It was this ongoing questioning of God and needing to be accepting of these long periods that required patience.”

“Seeing waiting as a time of deeper prayer and surrender yields more fruit than trying to direct all of our life story,” she added. “I just had to do that in that moment and just say, ‘This is going to be a different path for me than most people who publish a book.’”

Although waiting was painful, Nix learned valuable lessons she will share with those who attend her presentation.

“Someone like Megan Nix offers a talk that is formative for the faith but at the same time it’s unique, it’s personal and it’s a message that everyone who is Catholic should hear,” said Anthony Jewett, St. Mary’s director of evangelization. “What she learned with the practice of waiting, waiting for what God wants in her life, and following God’s time rather than forcing things according to her time is a very necessary message.”

The lessons Nix learned from having a child who was deaf at birth and losing her mother unexpectedly are universal and apply equally to women and men, Jewett said.

WHAT: “Waiting Through the Deserts of Life” presented by Megan Nix

WHEN: Thursday, May 23, 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: St. Mary of the Assumption Parish social hall, 1505 West White Pine Canyon Rd., Park City

Free and open to the public.