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Grief makes us uncomfortable. We expect the bereaved to pop a Prozac and move on—dive into volunteer work, organize a 5K, start a foundation —or at least get back to normal. Except that sometimes Grief has other ideas, keeping mourners locked in its grip for months or years and changing them profoundly.
Say His Name: A Mother's Grief is the true story of Susan Robinson's deep, prolonged grief after the accidental death of her sixteen-year-old son Collin. Susan chronicles five grim days in the hospital as the family hoped and prayed Collin would recover. She provides an intimate look into how death ravaged her family and lays open her own despair and paralysis, revealing heartbreaking firsts and grief tornadoes that strike at will.
A multigenre format interjects light moments and even humor amid the pain, and the outpouring of kindness and support from the family's loved ones and community are inspirational. And you'll fall in love with the captivating boy who was taken too soon.
Reviews for Say HIs Name: A Mother's Grief
The book is amazing. Like,
take my breath away at times, amazing. It was raw and real.
I felt a part of your family. --Thomasine B.
I’m sitting here feeling like I’m standing in that hospital with you, and everything you’re saying is exactly what I would have done or said or felt...I've fallen in love with Collin's heart every step of the way... I can already tell that your words are going to bring comfort to countless people. I couldn’t stop reading last night, it is so so good.
--Munchie C.
WOW. I read until 330 this am. Then just finished the final chapter now. I felt you as you sat there with him. I felt my own heart wanting him to live because as a mom you do not want THIS for your child. Then the aftermath... Susan you captured death...grief... soullessness....and self exploration...self examination...in the raw...the peeled away raw ...no other way to put it.
--Penny R.
Most of all, if you can't step around the grief monster lounging in your living room, Say His Name: A Mother's Grief will reassure you that you are not alone—or abnormal. As you follow Susan's quest to understand why children die and what happens after death, you will examine your own faith and develop your own explanations for life's unanswerable questions
Poetry harbors passion too intense
to leave exposed and vulnerable,
too painful to speak
unveiled, too beautiful to leave
unadorned. Poetry speaks the language
of ecstasy and grief
where nothing is clear
and emotions compete and conflict
and images transcend words.
Would that I never learned this language.
--from Ransoming Eternity
Say His Name: A Mother's Grief tells the story of Collin's death and Susan's unbearable grief. Ransoming Eternity: The Poetry of Grief elucidates the grief oozing between the lines--the emotions that prose cannot fully illustrate. The poems connect the writer and reader at the soul level.
As you read poems from different points in Susan's journey, you'll witness grief's shapeshifting nature and its tenacity as it holds her in its grip. If you grieve, Ransoming Eternity will comfort you by giving form and words to your feelings. If someone you love is grieving, it will help you know better how to support them--and what to avoid.
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