Women's View Radio: Charlene Costanzo, The 13th Gift

Charlene Gorda Costanzo is an award-winning author, workshop facilitator, wife, mother of two adult daughters, and grandmother of twins.  She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Bonaventure University and an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.

Originally from New Jersey, she has resided in New York, Texas, Arizona, and Florida.  During a one-year book tour to launch The Twelve Gifts of Birth, Charlene and her husband enjoyed living in an RV in 48 of the 50 states.

The Twelve Gifts series of fables began in 1987 when Charlene wrote The Twelve Gifts of Birth as a life message for her own, then teenage daughters.  Twelve years later she published the book and discussed its message in schools, shelters, prisons, churches, and hospitals throughout the United States.

The Twelve Gifts for Healing was written while Charlene was in treatment for advanced non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2001.  “Cancer led me to examine my convictions and look at these life gifts more deeply.  Truly, they helped me heal,” she says.

The Twelve Gifts in Marriage comes from the ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and hurts and healings that are a part of every long-term marriage.