Rebecca Sue: A Sister’s Reflections on Disability, Faith, and Love
Kathleen Norris
IVP Formation, 240 pages
Published September 16, 2025
“I’d say that her faith is childlike and solid,” Kathleen Norris writes about her sister Becky. These words could also describe Becky. Deprived of oxygen during her birth, Becky’s brain remains childlike, despite the very adult challenges she solidly faces. Norris explores the fullness of Becky’s life, ensuring that her beloved little sister is defined not by her many diagnoses, but by her humanity.
Rebecca Sue unfolds in short vignettes that read like journal entries. Norris honors her sister’s voice by inserting excerpts from Becky’s own letters. Becky is heartbreakingly candid; in one breath, she recounts harrowing stories of men who take advantage and, on occasion, attempt to assault her, while in the next, she breezily wonders if she should perm her hair or try a new lipstick.
At times frustrated by Becky’s increasingly erratic behavior, Norris explores her family’s helplessness, a gift to families in similar situations who require language for their own frustration. And yet Norris offers sweet glimpses of the two sisters reveling in action movies or supporting one another in grief, reminding us that Becky is more than her challenges.
A recurring theme of Rebecca Sue is that Becky yearns for places where she can belong and grow, and a partner by her side. While Becky’s fragile mental health and developmental limitations prevent her from fully achieving this, she possesses an earnest faith in a God “who loved and cared for her” no matter what. In Kathleen Norris’ trustworthy hands, Becky’s life becomes a witness to this God and an inspiration to us.
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