In Per­mis­sion to Thrive, Susan traces her extra­or­di­nary jour­ney, which begins when her healthy four­teen-year-old daugh­ter dies sud­den­ly from a brain tumor, and the family’s deci­sion on the worst day of their lives — and with their rabbi’s coun­sel – to donate Laura’s organs, sav­ing the life of a woman with whom the Miller fam­i­ly would even­tu­al­ly cul­ti­vate an excep­tion­al rela­tion­ship. This intense­ly per­son­al sto­ry of faith and hope address­es the unnerv­ing and uni­ver­sal top­ics of death, ill­ness, and trau­ma while con­vey­ing a hope­ful mes­sage: even though it’s impos­si­ble to pre­dict when adver­si­ty will strike, we can choose how to respond to trau­ma: con­fronting pain, accept­ing the Jew­ish community’s sup­port, being open to spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, engag­ing in authen­tic con­ver­sa­tions, and wel­com­ing any unex­pect­ed pos­i­tive con­se­quences that arise from hard­ship are all keys to achiev­ing post­trau­mat­ic (PTG) growth. This mem­o­rable book speaks to any­one who fears when that next bad event will occur and won­ders how they will respond. This book reveals the human abil­i­ty to grieve, sur­vive, and even­tu­al­ly thrive.