By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

An Alabaster resident will be signing copies of her first book on May 11 at Alabaster’s Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts.

Dena Bedsole, wife if City Council member Russell Bedsole, will appear at the bookstore from 1-2 p.m. to sign copies of her book “A New View of an Old Horizon,” which is a faith-based memoir “that recounts Dena’s struggle while her dad was dying from pancreatic cancer,” Russell Bedsole said.

“In her book, Mrs. Bedsole describes how her life had been pretty close to perfect: She married a wonderful man, and had two beautiful kids and a successful career in medicine. But when her beloved father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her family was thrown into a year-long nightmare of surgeries, chemotherapy and paralyzing fear,” read a press release on the book. “As Dena struggled to hold it together, she found that with God’s love she could survive the loss of her dad and emerge even stronger than before.”

Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts is located in Alabaster’s South Promenade shopping center off U.S. 31.

“God was the only thing that got me through my father’s sickness, and eventually his death,” Dena Bedsole wrote in the release. “God gave me enormous power to go on and stay strong. During my painful journey, I experienced many small blessings and answered prayers that gave me hope and helped me not to give up.”