Surviving Loss

Losing a guardian is one of life's hardest challenges to face. At the age of 14, I lost my mother to cancer. That early experience of loss and my journey through grief were the first steps towards a lifetime of studying the process of grief in order to guide people through their own difficult journeys....

His life was one devastating blow after another, losing multiple family members over the years to suicide, growing up in foster care, and being bullied. How does one pull themselves out of a storm like that? Surviving Loss: My Journey of Hope follows a man who often has reason to ask Why me? Many people ask themselves the same question when life pummels them, but this is a story of hope and coming out the other side, of recognizing the gifts and blessings between the pain and struggle.

The pain of suicide loss is indescribable. It seems beyond survival. Yet with faith, perseverance, and the tools of brain science, there is a way through. It will take time. It will take struggle. But hope is real, for there are things you can do to make it to the other side. If you are struggling with suicide loss or you need to come alongside someone who is, Rita Schulte wants to help you move forward.

How will I survive this loss? When her life shifted from fairytale to nightmare due to her husband’s death by suicide, Michelle Ann Collins found herself in the darkest place imaginable, reaching for answers to questions like: How am I going to eat, sleep, get out of bed, and do all the things? As a yoga therapist and wellness coach, she had more tools than many suicide loss survivors do, and yet escaping the dark grief cave required the most excruciating work of her life. It may feel like it now, but your life did not end with theirs.

Surviving Sibling Loss: The Invisible Thread That Connects Us Through Life and Death is the gold standard of grief books, helping not only people who are grieving but also their therapists, partners, and friends better support their loved ones. The chapters are deliberately short and full of easy-to-find resources, and the book can be listened to again and again. This structure aids those who are struggling, who fatigue and lose focus easily under the weight of their grief.

Best-selling author, hospice chaplain, and grief specialist Gary Roe uses his three decades of experience interacting with grieving parents to give us this heartfelt and intensely practical book. In Shattered, Roe walks the listener through the powerful impact a child's death can have - emotionally, mentally, physically, relationally, and spiritually.

Being suddenly thrust into the world of parental grief is like being transported to a foreign land where you don't speak the language. With that in mind, Claire Aagaard has written When a Child Dies in a simple, straightforward manner, offering information, comfort, and hope for those who believe that none is possible.

After a significant loss, it’s common to feel like we’re going crazy. The sudden absence of someone we love is not only devastating, it’s disorienting. The first year or two of grief is often unbelievably painful and confusing. We’re in shock, often for weeks or months. Time seems out of whack. We feel powerless, helpless, and ineffective. We can’t think straight; we can’t get anything done. Our moods swing wildly, and we say and do crazy things. We cry, and we cling to objects that belonged to the person who died. We have bizarre dreams.

Even if you’ve experienced pet loss before, losing your canine soul mate is different. Typical grief advice isn’t nearly enough. Heart Dog answers all the big questions about canine soul mates, offers practical ideas for coping with each day’s dose of grief, and provides inspiration for finding your place in the world after such a profound loss.

The Journey from Abandonment to Healing is designed to help all victims of emotional breakups-whether they are suffering from a recent loss or a lingering wound from the past; whether they are caught up in patterns that sabotage their own relationships or they are in a relationship where they no longer feel loved. From the first stunning blow to starting over, this book provides a complete program for abandonment recovery.

Death is the last taboo in our society, and grief is still profoundly misunderstood. So many of us feel awkward and uncertain around death and shy away from talking honestly with family and friends. Grief Works is a compassionate guide that will inform and engage anyone who is grieving, from the expected death of a parent to the sudden unexpected death of a small child, and provide clear advice for those seeking to comfort the bereaved.

What if you could use cancer to evolve more fully into love? David Maginley has been there - four times. His cancer led to a near-death experience and a career helping thousands face this disease. Through profound storytelling, David brings you to the core of the cancer journey to discover the hero within.

Kate Spencer lost her mom to cancer when she was 27. In The Dead Moms Club, she walks readers through her experience of stumbling through grief and loss, and helps them to get through it, too. This isn't a weepy, sentimental story, but rather a frank, up-front look at what it means to go through...

While it's tough to understand what leads a person into addiction - to witness someone you love kind-of kill herself - the truth is that you can learn from it. By the time Céline died at age 30, she was Kermit The Frog green and she vomited blood more frequently than she was able to eat. In less than a decade, she had gone from summa cum laude Columbia graduate to NYU PhD student to unemployed, rambling, stumbling drunk saddled with a cirrhotic liver beyond repair.

Kelsey Chittick was in a great place. Then one day, tragedy struck. On November 11, 2017, her husband Nate—a huge, happy, intense, and passionate man—dropped dead at 42 in front of their kids. Kelsey’s biggest fear had come true, and she had to decide how to move forward. In Second Half, Kelsey Chittick pays a heartfelt and hilarious tribute to Nate Hobgood Chittick’s tremendous spirit, muses about marital life and co-parenting, and shares her own dark and inspiring journey through heartbreak and loss.

This shadow always follows his Sunshine. Her life is a carefully crafted lie. For years, I only watch my Sunshine from the shadows; my loyalty to the Bellandis demands nothing less. When her husband is killed, the path is clear for me to step in and claim her for myself.

The heartache of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death affects thousands of United States families every year. Empty Cradle, Broken Heart, Third Edition offers reassurance to parents who struggle with anger, guilt, and despair during and after such a tragedy. In this new and updated edition, Deborah Davis encourages grieving and strives to cover many different kinds of loss, including information on issues such as the death of one or more babies from a multiple birth, pregnancy interruption, and the questioning of aggressive medical intervention.

Suicide would appear to be the last taboo. Even incest is now discussed freely in popular media, but the suicide of a loved one is still an act most people are unable to talk about or even admit to their closest family or friends. This is just one of the many painful and paralyzing truths that author Carla Fine discovered when her husband, a successful young physician, took his own life in December 1989. And being unable to speak openly and honestly about the cause of her pain made it all the more difficult for her to survive.

With raw vulnerability, a deep well of wisdom, and the practical knowledge of someone who's been there, Kim Erickson walks grieving moms through the life-after-death process from how to plan the funeral to how to deal with friends, family, holidays, and birthdays. This is a profound and powerful resource that's invaluable for the mom who has lost a child - and for her friends and family who want to love her well.

Humans are undeniably creatures of habit. So when sudden, unexpected plot twists pull the metaphorical rug from beneath our feet, it can sometimes feel impossible to regain our footing. Therapist and podcaster Jana Firestone knows this better than most, after losing her mum suddenly at the age of 21 and spending many years providing professional counselling to her clients during their darkest days. But in bearing witness to outpourings of grief, loss and pain on a daily basis, Firestone also experienced and observed remarkable resilience, transformation and hope.