When Diane Nares lost her 5-year-old son, her life, career and mindset drastically shifted.
Emilio’s death following a battle with a form of leukemia prompted Nares and her husband, Richard, to honor him by creating the Emilio Nares Foundation in 2003. Initiatives of the organization, headquartered at Liberty Station in Point Loma, include hospital rides for children across Southern California to ensure that no child misses out on vital treatment due to transportation barriers.
“We have reached 1.5 million miles logged driving children and have ed 11,000 individuals and families,” Nares said.
Now, Nares is sharing more of her and her family’s story in her first book, “His Place at the Table: A Personal, Public and Spiritual Love Story,” published in September.
Nares, a veteran of the food and wine industry in San Diego, said she wrote the book over the course of five years, mapping out how to relay the story in a way that would convey hope for readers who may be facing similar battles.
“This is my very first book, and every life experience, via joy and happiness or sadness, I have captured throughout my life with pen and paper in journals. I have always wanted to write a book about my son,” Nares said.
The book recounts Nares’ earlier years and how they shaped her into the mother she ultimately became.
“When I became a mom, everything changed for me — my priorities and my vision for the future,” she said. “My memoir takes my readers through this and expands on the shift from sadness to joy that follows a profound loss.”
The book expands on the reasoning behind starting the Emilio Nares Foundation and the importance it brings to her life 21 years later.
“Ultimately, the greatest healing came through the idea of service to others and getting outside our own selves,” Nares said. “The foundation helps families navigate their lives through childhood cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. We have heard so many stories through other families and recognized the need for this.”
Another theme in “His Place at the Table” is moving forward through grief.
“We really don’t have a choice but to find a way to live again,” Nares said. “I hope I can encourage people to continue living and find a way to access the joy of keeping on going. It is one step at a time, and in time you will start to feel that little release and slight joy. We need to be able to find a way out of despair, because how could we not?”
Through writing the memoir, Nares said, she has reached a sense of peace and understanding of her own grief and emotions — something she hopes readers will understand and accept.
“I ask readers to embrace what peace means for them,” she said. “In time … we can feel many moments of peace. I want readers to be gentle with themselves.”
Since the book was published, Nares has appeared at several bookstores and author talks to expand more on her story.
She is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 16, at Warwick’s bookstore in La Jolla.
“His Place at the Table: A Personal, Public and Spiritual Love Story” is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org.
For more information about the Emilio Nares Foundation, visit enfhope.org.
