I've always been a hopeful romantic. Growing up in a dysfunctional home, I spent much of my youth dreaming of living my own life in the future with the woman of my dreams. I'm there now, but family-of-origin issues remain, as they do with most of us. Humans are imperfect creatures, after all, and wounds take time to heal.
Ultimate Sacrifice on the surface is a love story, but there's a deeper level here, a story within the story. As if our dear protagonist doesn't have enough going on with her boyfriend's sudden catastrophic injuries and another young man's advances, she has to deal with her petulant mother who has some serious control issues. She may seem to want what's best for her daughter, but she's blind to her daughter's love for Ben and deaf to her pleas to live her own life.
Love requires sacrifice, and in this story, we find a character we can relate to on so many levels -- though most of us will probably never have our life partner lose a limb or few. In the end, she loses something as well, but she gains so much more. That's the power of love (cue music).