Lifelong New Hyde Park resident Maureen McHugh comes from a very large, tight knit family. When her family unit started to fall apart with the deaths of her paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother, she inexplicably starting finding nickels everywhere she looked.
Soon, the nickels turned to dimes when she was going through a tough time of losing her 46-year-old brother, Tim, to cancer. In her new book, Finding Dimes, she explains the spiritual presence of these monetary denominations when enduring some of life’s hardest battles.
“I started a small journal when my brother, Tim was fighting through his first bout with cancer as a way of dealing with it,” said McHugh. “It was kind of a way of healing through writing with a lot of hope and faith stories blended together.”
She said when she wrote it, was almost like she was writing to her brother, who was living in South Carolina at the time.
“My journal brought us closer together and sparked conversation between us that we would probably have never had,” said McHugh. “It was a lot of spiritual short stories that showed that the little things in life can have vast meanings.”
Her brother survived his first bout with cancer, giving the family hope that he would pull through. Unfortunately, the cancer came back and he was not able to beat it the second time.
After his death, McHugh showed her journals to a close friend, who insisted that she publish her work. McHugh found an editor who was willing to work with her and after making a few small changes, her book, was released in February.
In her book, it explains that finding the nickels and dimes in car seats, between sofa cushions, on the sidewalk and in change from the grocery store was a spiritual sign from above. At first she dismissed the notion that finding money was spiritually related but realized that in times when she prayed the hardest, the nickels and dimes would always appear.
“I believed that finding the nickels and dimes was like a symbol of a spiritual presence, that helped me to cope with unfortunate life situations,” said McHugh. “It was like when I first started finding the nickels it was like the angels were listening to me.”
Finding Dimes is a 52-page paperback. To find out more information or to request a copy of the book go to, dorrancebookstore.com
