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From Amazon:

After losing her long-term partner, through poetry and essay, author Mary Deal shares the turmoil and oftentimes bewildering depths of her grief.

This memoir exposes the spectrum of emotions with which those suffering loss will become familiar or already experience. The author holds back nothing of her odyssey of despair. Her experiences and much she has learned to help herself provide other survivors a chance to see that they are not alone. Though everyone’s grief is different, all grief is surprisingly similar in its basis. Hope is found in familiarity with another’s grief and no one should endure the bereavement process alone.

Following the author’s progression through relentless sorrow, and finally redemption, lets others know there is validation for their emotional suffering. An easing of the pain occurs as the memory of loss takes its place among all other memories of the life shared with departed loved ones. This memoir offers helpful advice for survivors who endure their grief, until the puzzle of life meshes back together again in a new pattern.

My Review:

This is a great resource book dealing with grief. Although the author writes from the perspective of losing her partner of 31 years due to cancer and its effects, this book can help others deal with grief. As a registered nurse and as a bereaved mother of one baby boy and one son who passed at age five due to cancer related issues, I get the grief process. Kubler-Ross explained it best in the stages of grief, and each stage is valid. Not only valid, but we move back and forth in the stages of loss, and we are normal in doing so. The author spills her heart out in her grief. I’ve done the same with the loss of my boys. Partner and spouse loss is different than losing a child, sibling, or parent. Yet grief is the same on different levels. This book will tell you that your grief is normal and will help you deal with grief. The author had a highly trained counselor to help her mediate the grief she felt. Not everyone can afford that, but if you have the means, please see a counselor in this area to help you out. It’s hard when a partner or a five-year-old little boy tells you they want to go to heaven and we are not ready to let them go. You can read how the author dealt with that situation as well.