Inspired by light and darkness

Claire began her writing journey later in life, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. When it came time to look for a new job a while later, she stumbled upon Getinge’s latest company video—Darkness and light— on LinkedIn, which she found had a similar theme to her book.

“I was on LinkedIn when I saw the company video and I just connected to it right away,” said Claire. “Life is hard as we all know; health issues may come, so there can be a lot of darkness, but we are the light in the dark. That’s what I saw in the video, and I thought to myself ‘no way’—they have the same values as I do, and my book is based on these values.”

Claire wrote the book The Light of the World over a period of 7 months and was inspired during the dark times of the pandemic, as well as from life’s trials and tribulations and being a working mom of two growing boys.

“I'm an engineer by degree and I never ever in a million years thought that authoring a book was going to be a thing for me. However, in 2020 I was working remote from home with my kids and found inspiration in all the chaos at the time.”

In the midst of the chaos, Claire was laid off from her job at the time and decided to fully commit to writing a children’s book. She based the book on real-life short stories. Two of the characters in the book were inspired by her children.

The goal is for kids to be able to see how life can be dark sometimes, but to remember that they are the light and make the world shine brighter, according to Claire.

“The message to children is that there always has and always will be darkness, but you will always find your way,” said Claire. “It’s about finding your inner light and spreading joy.”

Claire said she felt the same message from the Getinge company video. “The light and dark concept, as well as the company’s mission statement—it all aligned.”

She said she enjoyed the video so much that she decided to apply to Getinge. Now, she works in Quality and Compliance as a Sr. Quality Engineer.

“In my day-to-day, I help manage multiple management system quality plans, ensuring every plan is correct and timely,” she said. “The people at Getinge are great—there is a certain lightness to working with the team that I do even under immense pressure (darkness). The teams really do live up to the company value of being the light in the dark.”

She enjoys fixing what has quality issues and suggesting/implementing new ways to fix it.

Aside from the resounding positive impact she has in MedTech through her job as an engineer, Claire said she is happy for the impact her book has had on children.

“I just love the way it gets children to stop and think about their feelings and whether they are experiencing a light interaction or dark interaction,” she said. “It’s influenced them to think about what life really means and what's happening in that moment in time.”

She added: “Then when I read this book to different children, they'll just start telling me all these stories about their experiences with light and darkness.”

Claire recently read her book to more 20 children at Midland Park library, where she said the book really resonated with them. “It was a wonderful experience, and I will continue to offer readings and writer workshops at local libraries and schools.”

At the end of the day, Claire said she enjoys the impact she can make in peoples lives, no matter how small it may seem and no matter the location.

“I feel I am helping one kid with one book at one library at a time,” she said.

To view the company video Darkness and light that Claire was inspired by, click here: "Darkness and light"