Joni Eareckson Tada and husband Ken reflect on 30-plus years creating their ‘untold love story’

TITLE: Joni and Ken: An Untold Love Story

AUTHOR: Joni Eareckson Tada and Ken Tada

PUBLISHER: Zondervan

ISBN: 978-0-310-31469-1

PRICE: $18.99

RELEASE DATE: April 2

When Ken Tada met Joni Eareckson, he was smitten by a Christian woman with an attractive appearance and a striking personality. But that’s not all—Joni, as she has come to be known around the world—was a quadriplegic. Still, Ken committed himself to her, and the two took their marriage vows July 3, 1982. In Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story, written with Larry Libby, the two disclose the hardships and joys they have experienced in their more than 30 years together.

Ken first saw Joni in person when she spoke at a Young Life banquet in Burbank, Calif. He had read her biographies, watched her on Billy Graham crusades and had seen the movie about her life. Joni wondered if Ken understood just what a long-term relationship would be like with someone so well-known.

As for her fame, “she had come to accept it and live with it as a matter of course; it went with the territory,” they write. “But she had worried about Ken sometimes. Was he marrying the persona or the real person? It felt at times like he was walking into marriage with an idyllic view of who she was and what a lifetime with a quadriplegic woman really meant.” 

Early on, however, Ken learned what it was like to live with Joni, who was recognized wherever she went and known around the world. Joni had an international disability ministry—and a full schedule—while Ken was comfortable in his own world as a high school history teacher and coach. On the weekends, he needed some time to himself to recharge, so Judy, Joni’s longtime caregiver, would assist her when Ken went to visit his aging parents or go on a fishing trip, for instance. Ken was part of Joni’s ministry activities at times, but as a couple, they began to grow apart.

“They could still move in and out of each other’s worlds, but it wasn’t happening as often, or as joyfully, as it used to,” they write. 

Life with his wife’s never-ending needs led Ken into a depression, a condition he had battled in the past as well. By God’s grace, he began taking part in a men’s study focused on John Eldredge’s best-selling book Wild at Heart. Ken learned that men desire “an adventure to live, a battle to fight and a beauty to rescue.”

In June 2010, he got his big chance to rescue his beauty when Joni learned she had breast cancer. And Ken stepped up to truly be there for Joni. In fact, they write, her cancer became a “gift” that helped to transform their relationship.

“The more we have been forced to depend on Christ in our weakness, the stronger our marriage has become,” Ken told Dr. James Dobson in a “Focus on the Family” interview.

In a personal note at the end of the book, Joni admits that while their marriage may not “meet all the family-counseling criteria for ‘a happy marriage,’ ” there is one thing she knows for sure: “Home is with Ken Tada. … Home is wherever we are together.”

To order Joni & Ken, call 800-727-1309, or visit www.zondervan.com.

• Prev
• Next