Surviving Loss

Few losses are as painful as the death of someone close. No valley is as vast as grief, no journey as personal and life changing. Compassionate and wise guides Raymond Mitsch and Lynn Brookside shine a light on the road through grief. They can help you endure the anguish and uncertainty; understand the cycles of grief; sort through the emotions of anger, guilt, fear, and depression; and face the god who allowed you to lose the one you love.

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 Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most recognizable structures to define a modern city. Yet, for author Kevin Hines the bridge is not merely a marker of a place or a time. Instead, the bridge marks the beginning of his remarkable story. At 19-years-old, Kevin attempted to take his own life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge - a distance which took four seconds to fall. Recently diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, Kevin had begun to hear voices telling him he had to die, and days before his attempt, he began to believe them. The fall would break his body, but not his spirit.

Tapping their personal histories and drawing on numerous interviews, authors Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair, Ph.D., explore unexpected death and its role in the cycle of life. I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye provides survivors with a rock-steady anchor from which to weather the storm of pain and begin to rebuild their lives.

You know how devastating it is to lose a loved one. Coping with bereavement is a painful and bumpy journey with many twists and turns. It helps to have an outline or rough roadmap along this painful and bumpy journey, with a few short stories sprinkled in just to illustrate certain points. Give yourself time; handling and overcoming bereavement is all part of the journey.

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.

Combining humorous anecdotes and thought-provoking research, Sacred Sendoffs explores human relationships with beloved pets, wild creatures, animal astronauts, marine life, farmed animals, and other sentient beings. Along the way, animal chaplain Sarah Bowen shares insights for sustaining their lives, honoring deaths, and managing the emotions that arise when we lose an animal we love. While many books focus exclusively on pet loss, animal welfare, or environmental issues, Bowen's ever curious and playful style takes on all three, revealing their unavoidable entanglement.

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.

When T. J. Wray lost her 43-year-old brother, her grief was deep and enduring and, she soon discovered, not fully acknowledged. Despite the longevity of adult sibling relationships, surviving siblings are often made to feel as if their grief is somehow unwarranted. After all, when an adult sibling dies, he or she often leaves behind parents, a spouse, and even children - all of whom suffer a more socially recognized type of 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.

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.

In The Unspeakable Loss, Nisha offers support, guidance, and wisdom from others who have experienced the death of a child, as well as her personal story after the death of her beloved 17-year-old son, Victor, and her insight as a grief counselor and psychotherapist. Charting the long path from the worst possible nightmare, shock, trauma, and overwhelming pain to a life that once again miraculously contains joy, love, and laughter, The Unspeakable Loss addresses the importance of self-compassion and self-care.

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....

After living through an emotionally turbulent journey of infertility and the birth of one son, Fabiana was thrilled to discover that she was pregnant again, this time with twins. She did not expect to encounter a tumultuous road until she was told that one of her twins had no chance of survival. Then, only weeks later, she gave birth prematurely. Her surviving twin spent months in a neonatal intensive care unit and later became a child with special needs. From Surviving to Thriving is about finding the joy; making the choice to see hope where others only see despair, pain, loss, and sorrow.

Kate Spencer lost her mom to cancer when she was 27. In The Dead Moms Club, she walks listeners 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 gruesome grief and come out on the other side.

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.

The greatest fear I had during my grieving was that I was losing control, going crazy, and might make decisions that would harm myself, my family, and my friends. This included suicidal thoughts, which scared the hell out of me. I was desperate to find answers. Quickly, I found those answers would be hard to find, as resources for widowers are minimal and often of dubious value. In Widower to Widower, I've compiled the most vital information I could find on the widower experience into one book, so the listener does not have to search as hard as I had to do.

In the heart of 1912 Lansbury, England, the Bentley family stands poised on the brink of a life-altering adventure. With dreams of prosperity and promise, they prepare to set sail for America, which means leaving behind the familiar shores of home in pursuit of a brighter future. For five-year-old Mary Bentley, who clutches her cherished bunny, the journey is both thrilling and daunting, for this adventure is filled with anticipation of new horizons and the uncertainty of the unknown. As the ship's departure looms large on the horizon, tragedy strikes with devastating swiftness. In a ...

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.