The Owl at the Window is a dramatic, moving and funny memoir. An emotional, ultimately uplifting tale of loss and hope. 'Amazing and completely compelling...both funny and sad, and so moving, I couldn't put it down.' - Alison Steadman 'Devastatingly moving and hilarious in equal measure. I have laughed and cried during the reading of a single sentence.' - Caroline Quentin Winner of Best Memoir at the East Anglian Book Awards 'She is dead. She was here just now and she was alive. How can she suddenly be dead? People in history are dead. Old people are dead. Grandparents are dead. Other people are dead. Not people like me. Not this person. The person I was married to. Had a child with. Not the person who was standing next to me. Chatting. Laughing. Being.' Shock is just one of many emotions explored in award-winning TV comedy writer Carl Gorham's account of his bereavement which is by turns deeply moving and darkly humorous. Part love story, part widower's diary, part tales of single parenting, it tells of his wife's cancer, her premature death and his attempts to rebuild his life afterwards with his six -year old daughter. Realised in a series of vivid snapshots, it takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from Oxford to Australia, from Norfolk to Hong Kong through fear, despair, pain and anger to hope, laughter and renewal. The Owl at the Window is a fresh and original exploration of what it means to lose a partner in your forties, and how Carl learned to live again.

The Silly Thing is an account of a woman's acceptance of and struggle with living and dying with a grade 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the brain. It is told from the perspective of her daughter, Esther Ramsay-Jones, a psychotherapist and academic. The book discusses the fears that people might have about dying and specifically about brain cancer: for the author's mother, the tumour affected her speech and, as an English teacher, whose life had so intimately been tied up with language the fear of language loss was at times unbearable. From a psychotherapeutic point of view, the book will explore what it means to be given a terminal diagnosis and what kinds of psychological responses the 'patient' and family members might have. It will touch on notions of family systems theory, and the roles people might then take up as reaction to the news. The author also looks at 'difficult conversations' in palliative care - what might help/what might hinder - and the value of listening skills, capacity for attunement and containment, in staff teams and in the medical profession at large. Though the main focus in this book is her mother's experience, vignettes from the lived experience of practising palliative psychotherapy will be woven into the narrative to highlight the value of talking and sharing fears, anger, confusion, loves and gratitude with those who are dying.

The workbook fosters participant interaction, with worksheets for each activity that require written comments and drawings. Also contains updated bibliography for each session. It encourages sharing among group members, and communication with parents or guardians.

We cannot choreograph our own death, but we can die well. This is a book for those who are facing death. It is also for their relatives, friends and carers. John Wyatt looks at recent trends in dying. He examines the 'art of dying', a Christian tradition from the past. We see opportunities for dying well and faithfully, real-world examples of personal growth and instances of reconciliation and personal healing in relationships. On the other hand, there are also challenges to face: the fears and temptations that dying can bring. We learn from Jesus' example as we focus on his words from the cross. The wonderful news is that we can look forward to 'a sure and steadfast hope', the amazing hope of resurrection and its implications for our lives today.

"For the first time in my life, I finally see purpose for all I have endured with God's amazing Grace. I have a compassion for others who are hurting. Not necessarily just widows, but all hearts. I have a sense about people that I can look into a crowd of faces and sense they are hurting. I do not know the hurt they are experiencing, but I feel their hurt. I often speak to various groups about grief or other similar topics and I look across a room and can just feel the look on their faces by searching their hearts. I cannot explain it. Some often refer to it as the gift of discernment. I often refer to is a curse because after I experience that, it drains me emotionally and physically. But I feel that God uses those times to keep me fresh and true to my feelings and where they come from in order to help others."

There is no handbook for women who suddenly find themselves on the downward spiral to widowhood. "Building a Ministry of Comfort and Compassion" isn't a guideline, but a source of hope and encouragement on the journey into and through widowhood, as experienced by author Elaine Cook.

'Every time I speak to someone and hear about their experiences, it leaves me with a sense of running's incredible power to help people overcome pretty much anything.' Each day, millions of people around the world put on their trainers and try to deal with their personal demons and life challenges by going for a run. And, increasingly, they do it knowing that they are not alone: a growing and often virtual community is right there running alongside them. We are all, in some sense, running for our lives. Rachel Ann Cullen's first book, Running for My Life, described her own marathon journey through depression, bipolar disorder and body dysmorphia, and her revelatory discovery that running could transform her physical and mental wellbeing. After hearing from people who had read about her experiences, Rachel wanted to tell some stories of other runners from all around the world - ordinary people living with mental health struggles, grief, cancer and other unavoidable life events who have relied on running to get them through their worst days and to keep going. Running for Our Lives shares moving accounts of hope and resilience; it demonstrates the power of running to help us all overcome adversity, and is a lesson for us all in learning not only how to survive life's challenges, but to thrive.

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come.

A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.

John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then she was placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner when John suffered a massive and fatal coronary.

This powerful book is Didion’s ‘attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness’. The result is a personal yet universal portrait of marriage and life, in good times and bad, from one of the defining voices of American literature.

WE ARE ALL ON A JOURNEY - from the moment we are born to the final minutes before our death. But as we live our busy lives, we oftentimes ignore the inner hurts and pain we may be carrying. In Lessons from a Bedside, Breda Casserly, a healthcare chaplain at the Galway Hospice Foundation, shares the wisdom she's learned from her patients as she's journeyed with them through serious, often terminal, illness. Here are stories of self-acceptance, grief, forgiveness and memory inspired by the people Breda has met over the course of her work, along with her own story of coming to terms with personal loss. Told with simplicity and compassion, Lessons from a Bedside is a book of love, spirituality and humanity which shows us paths to healing.

Helping a mother transcend the death of her only child, helping a young child understand and cope with the death of a loved one, and helping survivors of the AIDS epidemic cope with the loss of numerous loved ones and the loss of community are among the greatest challenges facing today's bereavement counselors. Bereavement explores these sensitive issues and ways bereavement counselors can help these individuals construct new identities and new worldviews that are self-affirming. Using this book as a guide, you can improve your understanding of the various resources and options that can be employed to achieve the healthy resolution of grief with individuals, families, and communities. Recognizing that the experience of grieving is unique for all individuals, Bereavement addresses a wide range of issues facing bereavement professionals. Its authors offer a multitude of effective therapeutic interventions and techniques. You will learn to encourage grievers to incorporate important aspects of their lost relationship(s) into their present lives to gain greater personal integration and wholeness; see how to use music, dance, art, and play therapy with clients to help them explore their grief and move through the various stages of grieving; acquire helpful hints and practical advice for offering extended bereavement care to both hospice and non-hospice families; and see how a highly successful interdisciplinary bereavement team approach has been employed in one of the largest bereavement programs in the U.S. You will also learn about other crucial topics and issues faced by bereavement counselors, including: uniting survivors of different types of death in a support group teaching your community about death/dying developing rural hospice bereavement services emotional, behavioral, physical, social, and cognitive symptoms of grief healthy coping mechanisms pre-death bereavement interventions Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder multiple trauma survivor guilt bereavement counseling as a supplement to normal support networksBereavement will help you enhance your knowledge and skills in the delivery of effective bereavement services. Whether you are a beginner or a counselor with several years of experience, you will find this book an invaluable guide as it walks you through the different stages of mourning, through different human reactions to death and dying, and through different therapeutic approaches.

This comprehensive guide to helping grieving children offers a holistic view of grief as a normal, natural process. It explores the ways in which bereaved children can not only heal but also grow through their grief, and provides the six needs of mourning and counseling fundamentals and techniques for caregivers. Also included are explorations of how a grieving child thinks, feels, and mourns; what makes each child's grief unique; and ideas to help grieving adolescents.

First published in 1996. This new book gives voice to an emerging consensus among bereavement scholars that our understanding of the grief process needs to be expanded. The dominant 20th century model holds that the function of grief and mourning is to cut bonds with the deceased, thereby freeing the survivor to reinvest in new relationships in the present. Pathological grief has been defined in terms of holding on to the deceased. Close examination reveals that this model is based more on the cultural values of modernity than on any substantial data of what people actually do. Presenting data from several populations, 22 authors - among the most respected in their fields - demonstrate that the health resolution of grief enables one to maintain a continuing bond with the deceased. Despite cultural disapproval and lack of validation by professionals, survivors find places for the dead in their on-going lives and even in their communities. Such bonds are not denial: the deceased can provide resources for enriched functioning in the present. Chapters examine widows and widowers, bereaved children, parents and siblings, and a population previously excluded from bereavement research: adoptees and their birth parents. Bereavement in Japanese culture is also discussed, as are meanings and implications of this new model of grief. Opening new areas of research and scholarly dialogue, this work provides the basis for significant developments in clinical practice in the field.

A sensitive approach to overcoming loss! Behind every tragedy and loss lies a tranquil reality just waiting to be found. Finding Peace When Your Heart Is in Pieces shows you how to use the Four Paths of Transformation--acceptance, inspiration, release, and compassion--to move past your suffering and discover inner peace. Author Paul Coleman, PsyD, guides you through every chapter with powerful exercises that help you evaluate your current emotional state and how the hardship has impacted your life. With his guidance and insight, you will learn how to transform your pain into positive thinking, find perspective through charitable acts, and hone in on what you need to do to step into a brighter future. Whether mourning the loss of a romance, health, a loved one, or coping with any of life's upheavals, Finding Peace When Your Heart Is in Pieces will help you overcome your pain and finally find peace within yourself.

Here is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary look at current bereavement care practices and key concerns of care providers. Covering a broad spectrum of topics, interests, and perspectives from divergent disciplines and clinical experiences, the contributing authors explore theories and constructs that can clarify and be useful in the provision of bereavement services.Bereavement Care: A New Look at Hospice and Community Based Services addresses important issues related to the delivery of bereavement care and services. Chapters focusing on clinical concerns examine ways to distinguish grief from depression and the use of Jung s theory to expand an understanding of the grief process. Others explore options for community-based group interventions and the role of the volunteer in the provision of hospice bereavement services. Chapters with a research focus highlight effective assessment tools, the applicability of Bugen s model, and the practice and problems involved in hospice bereavement services.This rich and compassionate volume will be helpful to mental health professionals, social workers, chaplains, nursing personnel, and volunteers who work with or provide services to bereaved persons and families.

THE "NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLER

"Chasing Daylight" is the honest, touching, and ultimately inspirational memoir of former KPMG CEO Eugene O'Kelley, completed in the three-and-a-half months between his diagnosis with brain cancer and his death in September 2005. Its haunting yet extraordinarily hopeful voice reminds us to embrace the fragile, fleeting moments of our lives-the brief time we have with our family, our friends, and even ourselves. This paperback edition features a new foreword by his wife, Corinne O'Kelley and a readers' group guide and questions.

"Voicing universal truths . . . shared . . . simply and clearly."-Janet Malin, "New York Times"

"Words to live by."-Kerry Hannon, "USA Today"

"One of the most unexpected and touching books you're likely to read this year."-Edward Nawotka, "Bloomberg News"

"An honest, thought-provoking memoir . . . O'Kelly has many lessons to teach us on how to live."-Steve Powers, "Houston Chronicle"

" A] well-written and moving book."-TheEconomist.com

A unflinching memoir exploring the realities of marriage, care-giving, how we die and how we grieve.

After thirteen years together, Sarah Tarlow’s husband Mark began to suffer from an undiagnosed illness, which rapidly left him incapable of caring for himself. Life – an intense juggling act of a demanding job, young children and looking after a depressed and frustrated parner – became hard.

One day, five years after he first started showing symptoms, Mark waited for Sarah and their children to leave their home before ending his own life. Although Sarah had devoted her professional life as an archaeologist to the study of death and how we grieve, she found that nothing had prepared her for the reality of illness and the devastation of loss.

The Archaeology of Loss is a fiercely vulnerable, deeply intimate and yet unflinchingly direct memoir which describes a universal experience with a singular gaze. Told with humour, intelligence and urgency, its raw honesty offers profound consolation in difficult times.

Lynn McKenzie knows what it's like to face the many heartbreaking challenges life can throw our way. She knows, too, that there is One who wants to comfort and strengthen us. As you read Lynn's book, you, too, will discover that Love Never Fails You... Stephanie Nickel, freelance writer and editor Suffering in life is common to many people, creating heartbreak and despair. It is my desire that Love Never Fails You... will bring encouragement and hope to those who are hurting with life's trials and/or grief. Lynn McKenzie loves to sing a capella (without music) and is a first-time book author with the creation of Love Never Fails You... She enjoys writing a daily blog entry in Life with Lynnie. Lynn works as a realtor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She has had a varied employment history and has done volunteer work in an effort to help others, including teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). Lynn is a survivor of many life experiences, including divorce, injury, health concerns, family problems and issues, grief and more. During her lifetime, she has learned how to overcome and who to turn to in times of need, and is looking forward to supporting others as an inspirational speaker.