Petals from a Rose

By Tom Pagna

Book Overview

Tom Pagna, former football star at Miami of Ohio and coach at Notre Dame, traces the narrative of his family around the central character of his mother Rose, and in so doing shows us a way to live that is more than a way to survive. In it, Tom tells the wonderful stories of his family's past:
* The time that Tony Pagna needed to give just the right person at his son's school a peek at his .45;
* Why Rose had to name her company after a box;
* The day that Tony came home only to find strange people living in his home (Rose had sold the house that morning without telling him);
* Why Tom and brother Joe "needed" to kill Conrad.
Filled with laughter and tears, rage and tenderness, Petals from a Rose, in the end, becomes more than a three-generation chronicle of one family. It has a little bit of every family in it.
Noble rather than merely notable, the history of this family is an enduring, endearing paean to the search for the good, to the values won day by day in small deeds, not big words, to the striving for a better life, in which "better" is so much more than "more."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896515605
• ISBN13: 9780896515604
• Release Date: June 2019
• Publisher: Hardwood Press
• Length: 302 Pages

Customer Reviews

outstanding book

tom pagna was the coach that recruited me as a student athlete at the univ. of notre dame. coach pagna believes in family, teamwork and togetherness...this was indicated in his book with his mother rose and his family. the teamwork and togetherness of the family is the way coach pagna exemplified as a coach. after reading petals from a rose i feel i learned so much about not only coach pagna and his family but the true meaning of what a family should be like.

Every family has a rose and the rose's petals touch all.

This is a touching story about a seemingly ordinary family. The strength, determination, pride and faith of the Pagna's Rose reaches all members of the family and guides them through their lives. For a career football coach who has primarily dealt with "X's and O's", Tom Pagna displays a great command of the written word in describing this remarkable woman, his mother. I suspect that this book will remind all of its readers of the Rose in their family and the extraordinary things mothers do to nurture, goad, challange, encourage and love their children.