The following titles may be available for borrowing through the Ottawa TCF library. The list is being updated, so please visit again for any updates.
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After the Death of a Child: Living With Loss Through the Years
Author: Ann K. Finkbeiner
ISBN: 080185914X
Published: June 1998 | Published by Woodrow Wilson Center
Press
A book that explores our own resilience in the midst of one of
the most distressful forms of human suffering, the death of a child.
Because children aren’t supposed to die, the loss is not only painful
but profoundly disorienting. Finkbeiner, whose only child died in 1987,
refers to her own experience and the experience of others to show that
while bereaved parents can never really let go, they can and do
recover, often developing a new appreciation for their own lives. Says
one parent: “You just don’t treat life as lightly, and if you don’t
treat things lightly, they do become richer.”.
After the Darkest Hour, the Sun Will Shine Again
Author: Elizabeth Mehren
ISBN: 0684811707
Published: January 1997 | Published by Simon &
Schuster Trade
After Elizabeth Mehren lost her daughter, she set out to write
the book she most needed: one that would offer solace, support, and
inspiration. Telling her own story and the stories of other bereaved
parents – contemporary and historical – she discovered that this worst
grief of all never ends but that if you’re open to it, it can transform
itself. Above all, it is a journey. After the Darkest Hour is both a
guide and a meditation. The author takes us through the process of
grieving, from the effects of a child’s death on the parents’ marriage
to what to say when someone asks, “Do you have children?” This book
also offers valuable advice for the friends and relatives of bereaved
parents
Afterlife: The Complete Guide to Life after Death
Author: Emily Goldman
Published: January 1994 | Published by Studio Books
An honest, sometimes sardonic exploration, featuring beautiful
illustrations, of the many varieties of beliefs about the afterlife,
reviews various religious beliefs and personal accounts of near-death
experiences and reincarnation.
Against the Dying of the Light: A Father’s Journey Through
Loss
Author: Leonard Fein
Published: February 2001 | Published by Jewish Lights
Publishing
How do you explain a seemingly senseless tragedy? What does it
mean to be an observer of your own life? In this unusual exploration of
heartbreak and healing, Leonard Fein chronicles the sudden death of his
30-year-old daughter and shares the hard-earned wisdom that emerges in
the face of loss and grief. With the rich support of his community,
Fein anguished, questioned, and ultimately coped with the death of his
daughter by wrestling with some of life’s toughest questions.
The answers he discovers in the course of his own mourning
process provide not only comfort to others in “the company of the
bereaved” and strength to those who face personal tragedy, but also
wisdom for all who search for life’s meanings. Against the Dying of the
Light leads us to a different, surprising understanding of the gifts
that life and the quest for understanding have to offer.
The Andrew Poems
Author: Shelly Wagner
Published: January 1994 | Published by Texas Tech University
Press
One after another…Shelly Wagner’s poems reach out and
unstrap us; we’re forced head-on into the pathos, the overwhelming
beauty, the sense of unbearable loss. And as we read on, the only
cushioning restraints are the beauty of language, the aesthetic and
emotional impact of poetry (which intensify feelings even more, of
course). What saves us, then, as reader? How can we bear it? Why should
we try to cope with such loss, until we might have to?
The Bereaved Parents’ Survival Guide
Author: Juliet C. Rothman
Published: January 1997 | Published by Continuum Publishing
Company
This is a wise and compassionate guide through the difficult
times that all parents face when they lose a child. It begins with the
inner world of the bereaved parent and moves outward to consider
relationships to others: to a spouse, to one’s other children, to
relatives, friends, and acquaintances. It deals with some of the most
painful decisions a bereaved parent must face.
