Mother Searches for Daughter in This Life and The Next
On December 23, 2007, a small private plane carrying Kimberly Klein’s thirteen year-old daughter, Talia, her ex-husband, and her daughter’s best friend crashed into the side of a volcano in Panama. The story made international headlines as the frantic search for survivors spanned several days in the treacherous mountains until finally the news came of only one survivor – but it was not Talia.
“Hummingbirds Don’t Fly in The Rain,” by Kimberly Klein, chronicles Kim’s gut-wrenching seven-day journey to Panama in search of her missing child; her family’s fascinating and, at times, shocking lives before the accident; the wrongful death lawsuit she filed following the crash and the ensuing trial; and finally, her discovery that her daughter had not really ‘died’ but continues to live and communicate with her.
“Hummingbirds is about my transformational experience from pain and great trauma to the other side of the spectrum where I was able to find acceptance and healing in order to be able to survive,” said Klein.
Klein recalls that December day when she received a call telling her that her daughter’s plane had not arrived as expected. The events of each day unfold with Kim’s hurried and frantic journey to Panama, her desperate attempts to help with the search and rescue efforts, the shocking discovery of the crashed plane, the news that only her daughter’s friend had survived, and Klein’s heartbreaking return to the U.S. with her daughter’s ashes in a backpack at her feet.
In Hummingbirds Don’t Fly In The Rain, Klein explores
- Themes of the human spirit’s ability to overcome obstacles, grief, and personal tragedy
- Klein’s unimaginable journey searching her for missing daughter, and coping with the news she was lost forever.
- The special bond Klein still shares with her daughter and how she realizes Talia is trying to communicate with her from the other side
The title, “Hummingbirds Don’t Fly in the Rain” refers to a sign Kim receives when a hummingbird shows up outside her window while she’s thinking of Talia. She knows it is Talia, because it’s raining – and hummingbirds don’t fly in the rain.
“Pretty soon after the accident I could feel Talia all around me. Her messages began to heal me, and I wrote about that. The book started off as a memory keeper, a way to remember her, and ended up as a way to chronicle an amazing journey from devastation to healing,” adds Klein.
Woven into the excruciating story are the details of an ultimately strained marriage between Kim and her ex-husband, Michael Klein, an internationally known hedge-fund manager. Klein recounts the extramarital affairs, the lies and the ultimate abandonment by Michael of Kim and Talia.
