In the fall of 1998, George Cantor and his wife sent off their bright, funny, enthusiastic, 18-year-old daughter, Courtney, to the University of Michigan as a freshman. Six weeks later, the university called Cantor to claim her corpse. Courtney fell from her sixth-floor dormitory window after being served drinks illegally at a fraternity party. The events surrounding her death were featured on the CBS news magazine 48 Hours. In Cantor's grief over losing Courtney, he sank into a bitter and prolonged depression that led him to question the value of his own life and newspaper career. This ended after a year when he was diagnosed with cancer, at which point the value of life suddenly and stunningly was renewed. Emotional and reportorial, a mix of grief therapy, celebration of life, mystery, and social criticism, Courtney's Legacy addresses the reality of death, but views the issue from the other end of the life cycle. How do parents and friends deal with the loss of a young woman whose life was so full of promise? Courtney's Legacy also serves as an alarm for parents, being a tough examination of how university housing, legal, and social policies helped to create a situation that made Courtney's death a tragedy waiting to happen. Cantor eloquently unfolds his and Courtney's story, one of death, loss, and renewal, revealing that learning that acceptance of the past and celebration of the present is the only way to endure in our increasingly complex world.

How a father's struggle to understand his daughter s sudden death becomes an inspiring exploration of life.

The sudden death of a child. A personal tragedy beyond description. The permanent presence of an absence. What can come from it? Raw wisdom and defiant hope.

Leonard Fein probes life s painful injustices in this remarkable personal story. He exposes emotional truths that are revealed when we re forced to confront one of the toughest questions there is: How can we pick up the pieces of our lives and go on to laugh and to love in the aftermath of grievous loss?

Ruthlessly honest, lyrical and wise, Against the Dying of the Light takes the experience of loss beyond the confines of the personal, illuminating the universal meaning and the hope that can be found in the details of grief."

A wrenching account of one family's five-year battle with what proved to be terminal liver disease, this story explores all aspects of the difficulty in raising a family under such conditions. Written from the point of view of the primary caregiver, the story reveals much about the possible challenges facing the 17,000 families now waiting for a liver transplant in the USA. Many more face other debilitating diseases or the ravages of age. Despite his scientific training to try to understand what is happening, the author is crushed by the medical bureaucracy, and the wild ups and downs of the course of the disease. Having adopted their children, the author struggles with his fundamental values and his conflicting responsibilities to the children and to his ailing wife. This book should help friends and family better understand what a stoic experience the caregiver of one seriously ill may be going through. More importantly, it can show such a lonely individual that what they are going through is not unique, and that they need not be alone. As events proceed through hospice, funeral, and grief, the author looks back on their time together and reflects on the nature of life and love.

When your child dies, your world is changed forever. You are thrust into an abyss of grief and darkness-a place of loneliness that many people can't understand. Author Renee Hogan Blythe lost her only son, Kristopher, when he died without warning in his sleep at age thirty. Now she shares her heartfelt story of her personal journey of grief, providing insight into what happens when a parent loses a child of any age.

So often, others have a difficult time understanding the shock and devastation that parents experience when their child dies. Telling the story of how she overcame the demons associated with grief, Blythe speaks to all parents who have lost a child at any age and for any reason. Whether your child is a newborn or age sixty, he or she will "always" be your baby.

"When Your Baby Dies" seeks to help parents who have lost a child at any age in any way to understand that they are not alone. To get healthy again, we must learn how to create a new normal for ourselves and our families.

Becoming a widow isn't like becoming a wife. Becoming a wife requires major planning. But becoming a widow is often a surprise, and even withadvance planning some people are still stunned. It's difficult to prepare for widowhood. In "Widows 101," author Susan Barber uses her personalexperience with her husband's death to provide practical tips for surviving the death of a spouse.

Delivered with a gentle, lighthearted approach, "Widows 101" touches upon core elements widows will need to address after losing their husbands, such as

remaking yourself and redefiningwhat you want;
dealing with grief;
making adjustments in your personal and social life;
handling your spouse's personal effects;
attending to the details of your new life alone;
communicating your wishes for your own funeral.

"Widows 101" helps you prepare for the changes in your life as you confront widowhood. Learn how to make the changes work for you instead of against you as you navigate one of life's most difficult periods.

Based on the "How to Be a Perfect Stranger: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People's Religious Ceremonies."

The handbook for how to respond in an appropriate way when someone dies no matter what their faith or denomination.

Few of us are ever prepared for the loss of a relative, friend or colleague. This stressful situation can be made worse if we are unfamiliar with the practices and rituals of the deceased person s religious tradition.

This complete guide provides all the answers you need to express your condolences and show your respect in the appropriate way regardless of the religious tradition involved, addressing many common concerns, including:

Will there be a ceremony what will it be like, and how long will it last? What should I wear? What should I avoid doing, wearing, saying? Are flowers appropriate? What is the appropriate behavior if viewing the body?

These are just a few of the basic, very practical questions answered in this unique etiquette guide covering all the major (and many minor) denominations and religions found in North America from Hindu to Presbyterian, from Mennonite to Sikh helping you to do the right thing in a difficult situation.

Covers all the major (and many minor) denominations and religions found in North America: African American Methodist Churches Assemblies of God Baha i Baptist Buddhist Christian and Missionary Alliance Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Christian Congregation Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) Church of the Brethren Church of the Nazarene Churches of Christ Episcopalian and Anglican Evangelical Free Church Greek Orthodox Hindu International Church of theFoursquare Gospel International Pentecostal Holiness Church Islam Jehovah s Witnesses Jewish Lutheran Mennonite/Amish Methodist Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Native American/First Nations Orthodox Churches Pentecostal Church of God Presbyterian Quaker (Religious Society ofFriends) Reformed Church in America/Canada Roman Catholic Seventh-day Adventist Sikh Unitarian Universalist United Church of Canada United Church of Christ Wesleyan

In his exceptionally thought-provoking and moving memoir, neurosurgeon Joseph D. Stern explores how personal loss influences the way physicians relate to patients and their families. How does a doctor who deals with the death of patients on a regular basis confront his own loss when his beloved family member is living out her last days? Despite a career as a neurosurgeon, Joseph Stern learned more about the nature of illness and death after his younger sister Victoria developed leukemia than his formal medical training ever taught him. Her death broke down the self-protective barriers he had built to perform his job and led to a profound shift in his approach to medicine. During the year of her illness, Dr. Stern developed a greater awareness of the needs of patients and their families; of the burdens they carry; of the importance of connection, communication, and gratitude; and of what it means to ask the right questions. Grief Connects Us intimately explores the impact of personal loss on physicians and the ways in which they integrate it into their professional lives, providing a blueprint for change that places compassion and empathy at the centre of the practice of medicine.

In this volume the author proposes that it is the interplay of love and loss that lies at the epicentre of the human story. Support for this proposal is taken from neuroscience, art and psychoanalysis. It will also introduce the reader to important ideas and findings from Attachment Theory. An exploration of the relationship between love and loss can lead us to some understanding of the meaning of our lives. It shows how love and loss are inextricably bound at the centre of human experience, and form the essential dynamic of the human struggle.This book will appeal to sophisticated lay readers, in addition to various categories of student and professional audiences. It will be of interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, philosophers, neuroscientists and sociologists. Readers with a background mainly in the arts and humanities will find it appealing because of its linkages and use of poetry, song and visual art to elucidate and illustrate the major propositions of the book.More generally, anyone with a curiosity about love and loss will find this book attractive. It provides insight and illumination to many of the human circumstances that people encounter in their day-to-day lives.

'A beautiful, inspiring book that will change the way you think about exercise. I only wish it had existed when I was younger.' - Bryony Gordon If you are the girl, the woman who feels like she is never enough, that she will never be as strong, as good, as capable, I am here to tell you that you are enough. You can write a different story. Stronger will change what you think you know about strength and, most importantly, empower you to go on your own journey to discover what strength looks like for you. Having gone from hating P.E. to becoming a powerlifter who can lift over twice her own bodyweight, Poorna Bell is perfectly placed to start a crucial conversation about women's fitness - one that has nothing to do with weight loss. In Stronger, she shows how all of us can tap into our inner strength and find the confidence that physical pursuits can amplify - the confidence that has been helping men to succeed for centuries - and that women can find too. In this updated edition with a new introduction, Poorna tells not only her own story but those of a range of women, investigating intersections of race, age and social background. Part memoir, part manifesto, Stronger explodes old-fashioned notions about getting strong and explores the relationship between mental and physical strength. Whether you're into weightlifting, running, swimming, yoga or don't consider yourself to be sporty at all, Poorna shows how finding strength can work for you, regardless of age, ability or background.