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Showing 1 - 20 of 2850 items
By Jackie Hance, Janice Kaplan. 2013
In this powerful, intimate memoir, a mother of three shares her story of unbearable loss, darkest despair, and her cautious…
return to hope and love.After the accident on a New York State parkway that took the lives of her three beloved daughters—Emma, age eight; Alyson, age seven; and Katie, age five—suburban wife and mom Jackie Hance’s reality was the stuff of every parent’s worst nightmare. And nothing—including her lifelong faith—could ever explain the heartbreaking facts: the girls were killed in a minivan driven by their aunt, Jackie’s sister-in-law, Diane Schuler, while returning from a camping weekend on a sunny July morning. I’ll See You Again heartrendingly portrays a family tragedy few of us can imagine surviving, and how the power of forgiveness and the support of a tight—knit community gradually provided the courage and strength for Jackie and her husband to find a place of redemption, rebirth, and hope.By J. William Worden. 2018
Encompassing new content on the treatment of grief, loss, and bereavement, the updated and revised fifth edition of this gold-standard…
grief therapy book continues to deliver the most up-to-date research and practical information for upper-level students and practitioners alike. It’s a must have for all mental health professionals. The fifth edition includes updates to the author’s Tasks and Mediators of Mourning, new case studies, and valuable Instructor Resources. The text highlights recent initiatives to extend care to the bereaved and fosters the knowledge and skills required for effective intervention and even preventative treatment. Also addressed in this bereavement counseling book is the impact of social media and online resources for “cyber mourning,” changes in the DSM-5 as they influence bereavement work, alternate models of mourning, and new findings on the varied qualities of grief. <P><P>The fifth edition continues to present a well-organized, concise format that is easy to read and provides critical information for master’s level health courses in grief counseling and grief therapy as well as for new and seasoned practitioners alike.By Claire Bidwell Smith. 2024
From one of the leading grief therapists, this compassionate and accessible guide to grieving offers a new framework for understanding…
and navigating loss.An intimate guide to grieving that offers hope and healing within loss from one of the nation&’s top grief therapists. Conscious Grieving is a book for anyone seeking guidance and support after loss. Renowned grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith combines her deeply personal experience of loss with her long career spent working with thousands of people to introduce a new approach to grief, one that promotes hope and even transformation. What does it mean to grieve consciously? Most of the time, when we lose someone we love, it feels like grief is just happening to us. We feel out of control, and overwhelmed. Claire reminds us that while loss is something that inevitably happens to all of us, how we choose to grieve is up to us. When we can consciously engage with our grief, rather than avoiding it, we can access profound pathways to healing. Presented in a series of thoughtful, brief vignettes that don&’t overwhelm the reader, Conscious Grieving offers a new framework for each stage of grief: Entering, Engaging, Surrendering, and Transforming. Entering – staying present and taking care of ourselves as we navigate the shock and upheaval of a new loss. Engaging – navigating that first year after a loss by staying in tune with our needs as more complicated feelings of depression, guilt or anger surface. Surrendering – facing the changes to our identity and who we are becoming in the face of loss. Transforming – through ritual, honor, hope, and grace, and learning to carry our grief with intention so that we can continue to grow, heal, and thrive. Grief asks a lot from us. But the ability to grieve is a birthright. We grieve throughout our lifetimes. We grieve the deaths of loved ones yes, but also moves, divorce, illness, injustice, time lost, changes in the world and healing from these losses requires that we evaluate everything we ever considered meaningful. Healing means making our lives worth the pain we endure when we lose someone we love. And transforming through grief is an opportunity afforded to all.By Doug Horner. 2024
The dramatic story of an unlikely search and recovery duo who help law enforcement and grieving families with their uncanny…
knack for locating bodies underwater A powerful debut for fans of deeply reported stories that follow real people with obsessional passions, and of authors like Tracy Kidder, Sebastian Junger, and Patrick Radden KeefeWhen the police and FBI exhaust their abilities and options, and when grieving families run out of resources, their last best hope has been an Idaho couple who have spent their retirement years pursuing lost causes — and have located 130 victims from lakes and rivers across the United States and Canada.Gene and Sandy Ralston, a married Idaho couple in their mid 70s, are self-taught underwater search-and-recovery specialists who volunteer their time and equipment. And yet the Ralstons are counted among the best in the world. The Ralstons have an uncanny knack for finding bodies in deep water and can regularly find a missing person within hours, sometimes even minutes, of launching their boat.Law enforcement and emergency response agencies seek out their peculiar expertise, but when the Ralstons' home phone rings it's usually a family member of a missing person. Someone reaching out after the local police and volunteer groups have called off the official search. Someone who heard from a friend of a friend about a couple from Idaho who will travel thousands of miles at the drop of a hat — charging only their travel costs — to help complete strangers.By Susan Lieu. 2024
An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers…
after her mother dies during plastic surgery.Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success—until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone—why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.By Pamela Prickett, Stefan Timmermans. 2024
&“A rare and compassionate look into the lives of Americans who go unclaimed when they die and those who dedicate…
their lives to burying them with dignity.&”—Matthew Desmond, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Poverty, by America&“Cleareyed and disturbing, yet pulsing with empathy . . . [this] book is a work of grace.&”—The New York TimesFor centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters&’ fields—a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn&’t matter to others?In this extraordinary work of narrative nonfiction, eight years in the making, sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans uncover a hidden social world. They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducing us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will.The Unclaimed lays bare the difficult truth that anyone can be abandoned. It forces us to confront a variety of social ills, from the fracturing of families and the loneliness of cities to the toll of rising inequality. But it is also filled with unexpected moments of tenderness. In Boyle Heights, a Mexican American neighborhood not far from the glitter of Hollywood, hundreds of strangers come together each year to mourn the deaths of people they never knew. These ceremonies, springing up across the country, reaffirm our shared humanity and help mend our frayed social fabric.Beautifully crafted and profoundly empathetic, The Unclaimed urges us to expand our circle of caring—in death and in life.By Kathleen Marie Higgins. 2024
A philosophical exploration of aesthetic experience during bereavement. In Aesthetics of Grief and Mourning, philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins reflects on…
the ways that aesthetics aids people experiencing loss. Some practices related to bereavement, such as funerals, are scripted, but many others are recursive, improvisational, mundane—telling stories, listening to music, and reflecting on art or literature. Higgins shows how these grounding, aesthetic practices can ease the disorienting effects of loss, shedding new light on the importance of aesthetics for personal and communal flourishing.You can’t take it with you, but you can ensure that what you leave behind has value and meaning. Whether…
you want the fruits of your life’s work to benefit your family, the environment, science, human rights, the arts, your church, or another cause dear to you, one thing is certain: It won’t happen unless you plan. What to Do with Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want is a step-by-step, DIY guide to turning your money and “stuff” into something meaningful that will outlast you—whether you are in the prime of life or your later years, single or partnered, have kids or not, are well-off or of modest means. With her trademark practical wisdom, downsizing expert Marni Jameson offers plenty of comfort (and even some laughs) as she guides you through the following: Identifying whom you want to benefit from your legacy Navigating wills, trusts, and other paths to your goals Heading off potential family conflicts Making the best plan for your material assets This book will encourage and inspire you through every step of your final downsizing project, helping you make a positive impact on the people and causes closest to your heart.By Eveline Helmink. 2021
“An open-hearted and honest look at the reality of caring for someone with this life-changing diagnosis. Eveline generously shares her…
experiences, insights, and practical tools to cultivate compassion, acceptance, and love, even during the most painful experiences.”—Dr. Nicole LePera, New York Times–bestselling author of How to Do the Work A vital source of solace and compassion for those whose loved one has dementia, rooted in the author’s unflinching experience of caring for her mother Dementia enters life through the back door, slipping in unnoticed. Once it’s there, it can make you feel powerless, angry, and unsure how to move forward. When her mother developed dementia, Eveline Helmink wasn’t prepared. As she learned firsthand, when your loved one is suffering, it takes a toll on you, too. As you navigate finding professional caregivers and adapting to your loved one’s behavioral challenges, this book will help you confront all the complexities of the experience. Identify healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Work through feelings of denial, grief, guilt, shame, and fear. Summon the courage to make decisions in your loved one’s best interest. Live in the present, find laughter, and show love in the face of dementia. When a Loved One Has Dementia weaves together Eveline’s unflinching personal account and her empathetic guidance, allowing you to walk through the endless tunnel and illuminating the path to acceptance, forgiveness, and love.By Clare Mackintosh. 2024
'Truly the best and most insightful book about grief I have ever read' Joanna Cannon'Beautiful, heart-breaking and yet overwhelmingly hopeful'…
Mike GayleGrief is universal, but it's also as unique to each of us as the person we've lost. It can be overwhelming, exhausting, lonely, unreasonable, there when we least expect it and seemingly never-ending. Wherever you are with your grief and whoever you're grieving for, I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This is here to support you. To tell you, until you believe it, that things will get easier.When bestselling writer Clare Mackintosh lost her five-week-old son, she searched for help in books. All of them wanted to tell her what she should be feeling and when she should be feeling it, but the truth - as she soon found out - is that there are no neat, labelled stages for grief, or crash grief-diets to relieve us of our pain. What we need when we're grieving is time and understanding. With 18 short assurances that are full of compassion - drawn from Clare's experiences of losing her son and her father - I Promise it Won't Always Hurt Like This is the book she needed then.PRAISE FOR I PROMISE IT WON'T ALWAYS HURT LIKE THIS'That Clare has used her own devastating experience to help others who are going through something similar is a brave and hugely laudable thing to do. A book that is both heart-breaking in its honesty and uplifting in its compassionate approach, it is beautifully written and offers - implicit in the title - hope' Alan Titchmarsh'Wherever you are with your grief, and whoever you're grieving for, this incredibly honest book was written to support you... full of compassion and comfort' Adele Parks, Platinum'A book dripping with a compassion that can only truly be laid out on the page by a Survivor of the Trenches of Grief . We need now, perhaps more than ever, beacon-makers like Clare to help guide us through our darkness' Greg Wise'A true lifeline if you think no one else can possibly understand how you feel' Jill Mansell'Written with honesty, realism, deep personal insight and hope' Child Bereavement UK'A salve for broken hearts. Readers who've been touched by loss will find comfort in these pages.' Publishers WeeklyBy Clare Mackintosh. 2024
'Truly the best and most insightful book about grief I have ever read' Joanna Cannon'Beautiful, heart-breaking and yet overwhelmingly hopeful'…
Mike GayleGrief is universal, but it's also as unique to each of us as the person we've lost. It can be overwhelming, exhausting, lonely, unreasonable, there when we least expect it and seemingly never-ending. Wherever you are with your grief and whoever you're grieving for, I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This is here to support you. To tell you, until you believe it, that things will get easier.When bestselling writer Clare Mackintosh lost her five-week-old son, she searched for help in books. All of them wanted to tell her what she should be feeling and when she should be feeling it, but the truth - as she soon found out - is that there are no neat, labelled stages for grief, or crash grief-diets to relieve us of our pain. What we need when we're grieving is time and understanding. With 18 short assurances that are full of compassion - drawn from Clare's experiences of losing her son and her father - I Promise it Won't Always Hurt Like This is the book she needed then.PRAISE FOR I PROMISE IT WON'T ALWAYS HURT LIKE THIS'That Clare has used her own devastating experience to help others who are going through something similar is a brave and hugely laudable thing to do. A book that is both heart-breaking in its honesty and uplifting in its compassionate approach, it is beautifully written and offers - implicit in the title - hope' Alan Titchmarsh'Wherever you are with your grief, and whoever you're grieving for, this incredibly honest book was written to support you... full of compassion and comfort' Adele Parks, Platinum'A book dripping with a compassion that can only truly be laid out on the page by a Survivor of the Trenches of Grief . We need now, perhaps more than ever, beacon-makers like Clare to help guide us through our darkness' Greg Wise'A true lifeline if you think no one else can possibly understand how you feel' Jill Mansell'Written with honesty, realism, deep personal insight and hope' Child Bereavement UK'A salve for broken hearts. Readers who've been touched by loss will find comfort in these pages.' Publishers WeeklyBy Bj Miller, Shoshana Berger. 2019
&“A gentle, knowledgeable guide to a fate we all share&” (The Washington Post): the first and only all-encompassing action plan…
for the end of life.&“There is nothing wrong with you for dying,&” hospice physician B.J. Miller and journalist and caregiver Shoshana Berger write in A Beginner&’s Guide to the End. &“Our ultimate purpose here isn&’t so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do.&”Theirs is a clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but controllable. Their book offers everything from step-by-step instructions for how to do your paperwork and navigate the healthcare system to answers to questions you might be afraid to ask your doctor, like whether or not sex is still okay when you&’re sick. Get advice for how to break the news to your employer, whether to share old secrets with your family, how to face friends who might not be as empathetic as you&’d hoped, and how to talk to your children about your will. (Don&’t worry: if anyone gets snippy, it&’ll likely be their spouses, not them.) There are also lessons for survivors, like how to shut down a loved one&’s social media accounts, clean out the house, and write a great eulogy.An honest, surprising, and detail-oriented guide to the most universal of all experiences, A Beginner&’s Guide to the End is &“a book that every family should have, the equivalent of Dr. Spock but for this other phase of life&” (New York Times bestselling author Dr. Abraham Verghese).By Rod Nordland. 1989
By the New York Times’s legendary war correspondent, written while battling terminal brain cancer: a life-affirming memoir of high adventure,…
deep wisdom, and finding true happiness amid the unlikeliest circumstances“This is, by far, the most enlightening and inspiring book on facing death—and on discovering the beauty of life.” —Lynsey Addario, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalistFor thirty years, Rod Nordland shadowed death. As one of his generation's preeminent war correspondents, he reported in over 150 countries, many of which were in violent upheaval, and was no stranger to witnessing tragedy. But in summer 2019, during the height of India’s erratic monsoon season, Nordland was suddenly faced with a tragedy of his own: he collapsed in the middle of a morning jog, was rushed to the hospital, and diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor.After decades chasing conflicts across the globe, Nordland, now confined to a hospital bed, found the strength to face more personal conflicts. He reconnected with his estranged children and became closer with them than he ever thought possible. He repaired a friendship with a best friend that had been broken for twenty years. The arrogance and certitude that dominated his every action was replaced by a lucid sense of humility and generosity that persisted even after he left the hospital. Norland’s tragedy became, in his own words, “a gift that has enriched my life.” Waiting for the Monsoon is the exemplary story of confronting death with both eyes open, and of the human capacity to persevere even in the most difficult of times. With tremendous clarity, grace, and courage, Nordland has delivered a powerful final assignment, revealing how facing the unknown can transform experience and change our relationship to the world around us.By Alan Pearce, Beverley Pearce. 2024
• Examines the experiences of those who have survived comas• Demonstrates how a key element of the brain is switched…
off by coma-inducing sedatives, allowing the mind to break free from the body• Shares proven alternatives to medically-induced coma that are safer for treating critically ill patients and kinder for the patients and their familiesEvery day around the world, thousands of people are placed in medically-induced comas. For some coma survivors, the experience is an utter blank. Others lay paralyzed, aware of everything around them but unable to move, speak, or even blink. Many experience alternate lives spanning decades, lives they grieve once awakened. Some encounter ultra-vivid nightmares, while others undergo a deep, spiritual oneness with the universe or say they have glimpsed the afterlife.Examining the beautiful and disturbing experiences of those who have survived comas, Alan and Beverley Pearce explore the mysterious levels of consciousness this near-death experience unlocks. They demonstrate how a key element of the brain is switched off by coma-inducing sedatives, allowing the mind to break free from the body and experience a greater expansion of consciousness. Revealing the dangers of deep sedation and other intensive care procedures, the authors show how comas are unnecessary more often than not and that many coma survivors go on to suffer lasting cognitive and physical harm. Exploring proven alternatives to medically-induced coma, they share tried and tested protocols that are safer for critically ill patients and kinder for the patients and their families.Showing how we can avoid the suffering caused by comas, this book reveals the wide variety of conscious states that can arise during comas, both positive and negative, and how accepting the reality of these experiences is crucial not only to the recovery of coma survivors but also to the field of consciousness and near-death experience (NDE) studies.By Sloane Crosley. 2024
One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year: TIME, The Washington Post, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Publishers Weekly, Paste, The…
Millions, Kirkus Reviews, Lit Hub, Real Simple, Nylon, BookPage, The Story Exchange, Sunset, and Zibby Mag Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley’s memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.How do we live without the ones we love? Grief Is for People is a deeply moving and suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss that is profuse with life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behavior, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on full display. After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Crosley looks for answers in philosophy and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief.For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, Sloane’s apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels Sloane on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll of the pandemic.Sloane Crosley’s search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with resounding empathy. Upending the “grief memoir,” Grief Is for People is a category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it rises precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.From grief and mourning to aging and relationships, poet and Redbook contributor Judith Viorst presents a thoughtful and researched study…
in this examination of love, loss, and letting go.Drawing on psychoanalysis, literature, and personal experience, Necessary Losses is a philosophy for understanding and accepting life’s inevitabilities.In Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst turns her considerable talents to a serious and far-reaching subject: how we grow and change through the losses that are a certain and necessary part of life. She argues persuasively that through the loss of our mothers’ protection, the loss of the impossible expectations we bring to relationships, the loss of our younger selves, and the loss of our loved ones through separation and death, we gain deeper perspective, true maturity, and fuller wisdom about life. She has written a book that is both life affirming and life changing.By Vince Granata. 2021
Grief, mental illness, and the bonds of family are movingly explored in this extraordinary memoir &“suffused with emotional depth and…
intellectual inquiry&” (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises) as a writer delves into the tragedy of his mother&’s violent death at the hands of his brother who struggled with schizophrenia. Perfect for fans of An Unquiet Mind and The Bright Hour. Vince Granata remembers standing in front of his suburban home in Connecticut the day his mother and father returned from the hospital with his three new siblings in tow. He had just finished scrawling their names in red chalk on the driveway: Christopher, Timothy, and Elizabeth. Twenty-three years later, Vince was a thousand miles away when he received the news that would change his life—Tim, propelled by unchecked schizophrenia, had killed their mother in their childhood home. Devastated by the grief of losing his mother, Vince is also consumed by an act so incomprehensible that it overshadows every happy memory of life growing up in his seemingly idyllic middle-class family. &“In candid, smoothly unspooling prose, Granata reconstructs life and memory from grief, writing a moving testament to the therapy of art, the power of record, and his immutable love for his family&” (Booklist).By Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. 1997
On Children and Death is a major addition to the classic works of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, whose On Death and Dying…
and Living with Death and Dying have been continuing sources of strength and solace for tens of millions of devoted readers worldwide. Based on a decade of working with dying children, this compassionate book offers the families of dead and dying children the help -- and hope -- they need to survive. In warm, simple language, Dr. Kübler-Ross speaks directly to the fears, doubts, anger, confusion, and anguish of parents confronting the terminal illness or sudden death of a child.By Sloane Crosley. 2024
Potent and propulsive, a lyrical meditation on loss and what comes after - TARA WESTOVERFor most of her adult life,…
Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place.When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll brought on by the pandemic.Crosley's search for truth is frank, darkly funny, and gilded with a resounding empathy. Upending the 'grief memoir' in this deeply moving and surprisingly suspenseful portrait of friendship, Grief Is for People is a category-defying story of the struggle to hold on to the past without being consumed by it. A modern elegy, it is a book about loss packed with verve for life, rising precisely to console and challenge our notions of mourning during these grief-stricken times.By Michael Sledge. 2004
The first book to address the complicated issues surrounding what happens to members of the United States Armed Forces after…
they die. Why does recovering the remains of servicepeople matter? Soldier Dead examines this question and provides a thorough analysis of the processes of recovery, identification, return, burial, and remembrance of the dead. Sledge traces the ways in which the handling of our Soldier Dead has evolved over time and how these changes have reflected not only advances in technology and capabilities but also the shifting attitudes of the public, government, and military. He also considers the emotional stress experienced by those who handle the dead; the continuing efforts to retrieve bodies from Korea and elsewhere; and how unresolved issues regarding the treatment of enemy dead continue to affect U.S. foreign relations. Skillfully incorporating excerpts from interviews, personal correspondence and diaries, military records, and journalistic accounts—as well as never-before-published photographs and his own reflections—Michael Sledge presents a clear, concise, and compassionate story about what the dead mean to the living. Throughout Soldier Dead, the voices of the fallen are heard, as are those of family members and military personnel responsible for the dead before final disposition. At times disturbing and at other times encouraging, they are always powerful as they speak of danger, duty, courage, commitment, and care. &“A timely and detailed investigation into the moral conscience of American society which will be of interest to anyone concerned with the human costs of war. An important and passionate book which deserves a wide readership.&”—Chris Shilling, University of Portsmouth, UK