Samford alumna Katherine Wolf spoke at Samford on Thursday, April 11, in Reid Chapel during both convocation hour and a women’s event in the evening.
Samford Body Positive, a student organization is dedicated to supporting and developing positive body image and healthy eating, sponsored the event, . Avery Lorio, president of the organization, introduced Wolf to the stage.
Wolf and her husband, Jay, graduated from Samford University in 2004. Two years later, at the age of 26, she nearly died from a brainstem stroke. The miraculous survival and recovery of her life and family is detailed in her and her husband’s book, “Hope Heals,” published in April 2016. The Wolf’s also launched Hope Heals Camp, a summer camp for families with disabilities in June 2017.
The scars that Wolf bears now are not just physical, but emotional too. She was still in a coma during her first mother’s day with her firstborn son, James, a moment she said she is still sad that she will never get back.
“But scars are holy, too,” Wolf said. “The resurrected Jesus had scars in his hands, too.”
Wolf tied her story into the theme of the event, body positivity, bringing a unique perspective to the issue.
“After suffering, you can’t go back to your old self, but you don’t want to,” Wolf said. “When suffering has changed you, things like the physical don’t have the same weight.”
Later in the event, Wolf took part in a moderated Q&A session where audience members could turn in slips of paper first given to them at the beginning of the event and questions about adjusting to life with a disability, social media and her marriage.
Wolf closed the session by sharing her favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
