Grief Biography

At the age of 18, Tré Miller Rodríguez gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. At 19 her only sibling was killed in a car accident. At 34 her husband, Alberto, died of a sudden heart attack. But at 36 her teenage daughter found her on Facebook and began to reshape the course of Tré's life.

What happens when the life you’ve always dreamed of disappears in the blink of an eye? For Inez Ribustello, that day came twenty years ago on September 11th, 2001. Ribustello grew up in the small town of Tarboro, North Carolina but found her way to The Big Apple to attend culinary school in 1998. In New York City, her love for wine, food, often enjoying both at the same time, was born. She knew that working at Windows on the World - on the top floor of the Twin Towers - was where she was meant to be.

"Siempre he pensado que la vida es amor y dolor, pero que tenemos la opción de transformar ese dolor para evitar quedar anclados en el sufrimiento, que es inútil. El autor de este audiolibro, un héroe anónimo, nos demuestra que con una actitud positiva, sea cual sea el desenlace, y regalando sonrisas - aunque en el fondo no se tengan suficientes motivos para sonreír -, se atraviesan los momentos más duros de la vida de una forma mucho más sana y llevadera.

Parenting can be a struggle, especially parenting a disabled child. In this flawlessly crafted memoir, Kramar describes championing her son, diagnosed with Sotos syndrome, through his short life. She examines the experience of loving and losing a child and reminds us that there is a way forward through the grief. Kramar’s memoir offers guidance, wisdom, and inspiration - an amazing story of redemption and hope.

What would you do if a stranger told you your son was going to die? Silas is 10 years old when the headaches start. When the diagnosis arrives, his parents are told they have until Christmas...maybe. And so begins Sarah Pullen's battle to save her son, against doubting doctors and insurmountable odds. This story about love and loss traces her family's journey from that first day at the hospital, battling a tumour they named Bob, through Silas' death and beyond.

One day in December, Natasha Walter's mother Ruth took her own life. At first, the grief and guilt that Natasha felt were overwhelming. As the author of feminist books and the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women, Natasha had always been active in movements for social justice. But in the aftermath of her mother's suicide, her personal grief intertwines with a sense of political despair. Gradually, she starts to search back through Ruth's history, trying to understand how her life led to this death.

On the first day of school, 10-year-old Jeffrey and his six-year-old brother, Tyler, climbed out of the school bus at the foot of their driveway, walking into their home, excited about the first day of school. Instantly, their anticipation for the family back-to-school celebration turned to horror as they found their father murdered, stabbed and shot in a laundry room awash with blood. With a rush of adrenaline and terror, Jeffrey hid his younger brother, huddled behind the couch, and called 911 where his mother had worked for years.

Texas businessman Mike Fechner had it all. Money. Investments. Prestige. Until he did the unthinkable. He sold his company and poured his life's earnings into a ministry for the poor. With a strong faith in God at his core, this millionaire turned missionary envisioned a long future serving the urban Dallas poor and the people of poverty-stricken Africa.

On a February day in 2008, Forrest Church sent a letter to the members of his congregation, informing them that he had terminal cancer; his life would now be measured in months, not years. In that remarkable letter, he wrote: "In more than one respect, I feel very lucky." He went on to promise that he would sum up his thoughts on the topics that had been so pervasive in his work-love and death-in a final book.

February 29th is a date that comes into existence just once every four years. It is also the birthday of Thais - author Anne-Dauphine Julliand's darling daughter - who died of a genetic disease. Thais lived just shy of her fourth birthday. She had a short life but good one. As this special day is about to reappear on her calendar for the first time since her daughter passed away, Anne-Dauphine struggles with how to mark this momentous occasion. She wants to live fully on this special day: Thais would have been eight years old.

Life hit Pat and Tammy McLeod hard when their son Zach collapsed on a high school football field; he had sustained a severe brain injury. Facing the devastating possibility that things would never be the same for their beloved son, they committed to staying strong as a family and finding a way to maintain their footing. But the journey would reshape their faith, their family, and their future in ways they never saw coming.

Truth, Huxley will learn, requires the loss of everything that keeps her from it. Starting over on a small farm on the plains of Kansas, she will find a vast wilderness to cross, one where beauty will triumph over defeat and love overcome death, where the colors of promise and eternity are unveiled, illuminating further each small step on the way to the ecstasy of understanding. It will be ridiculously hard at times. But there, she will be reminded of who she is and where she is going. We are not such as dreams are made of. But sometimes dreams can lead us home.

A biography; a life story that is more than that. Her life has been an inspiration to intellectuals, doubters, wayfarers; an Oak of Weeping to sit under; a mix of strength and weakness. She describes her life as a remarkable and difficult one, yet one in which she dares to see its beauty. It has warmth, a verbal straightness, humor, self-irony, and authenticity. It is a fiery and hopeful book from a living heart. It feels like a long and very personal letter.

When Lu Spinney's 29-year-old son, Miles, flies up on his snowboard, "he knows he is not in control as he is taken by force up the ramp," writes his mother, "skewing sideways as his board clips the edge and then he is hurtling, spinning up, up into the free blue sky ahead.... " He lands hard on the ice and falls into a coma. Thus begins the erratic loss - Miles first in a coma and then trapped in a fluctuating state of minimal consciousness - that unravels over the next five years.

The Magic of Life explores how he overcame tragedy, grief, and depression throughout his life. Even though he lost his mother, he and his brother were raised by his father and an incredible Jamaican woman who stepped in to fill the mother’s role. Michael shares his unique life about loss and how he finally addressed his grief with a blend of humor and inspiration that will have you crying and laughing throughout the book.

In the aftermath of a heartbreaking tragedy, a scholar and writer uses Dante's Divine Comedy to shepherd him through the dark wood of grief and mourning - a rich and emotionally resonant memoir of suffering, hope, love, and the power of literature to inspire and heal the most devastating loss.

Ao trazer a morte da mãe para o centro deste relato, Noemi Jaffe, uma das principais vozes da literatura brasileira, expõe de forma brutal as feridas do luto e o que é possível fazer para vivê-lo. Em fevereiro de 2020, aos 93 anos, falece Lili, sobrevivente do Holocausto, mãe de três filhas e viúva. Sua doença vinha se estendendo há tempos, mas isso não faz com que a dor de sua partida seja menor. A banalidade da causa, "uma infecção nos pés", é confrontada com um sentimento de descrença. Como é possível que aquela que sempre esteve presente não exista mais?

It is an uncomfortable truth that the path to joy often leads through valleys shadowed by grief. Janna Barber was a preacher’s kid. She grew up surrounded by a cloud of believers that taught her to ignore and suppress such negative emotions. She graduated high school, went to college, found a husband, and started a family. That was when she found herself suffering through a profound sadness. Depression, multiple miscarriages, and an inexplicable anger weighed her down as she trudged through those shadows, searching for a light she could not find.

In March 2017, Niamh Fitzpatrick’s life fell apart overnight. Her beloved sister, Dara, was killed in a helicopter crash. Soon afterwards, Niamh’s marriage ended, and she feared she would lose her home. Life as she knew it was gone forever, and the grief was overwhelming. A psychologist for many years, Niamh’s job is to help clients through the toughest times in their lives.

The Price of Admission takes us on a journey with Liz from loss into renewed life. Raw, unflinchingly honest, and surprisingly funny, Liz writes from a universally understood place of struggle, whether that is the deep darkness of grief or the hazy, yet joyful, dimness of demanding everyday lives spent caring for ourselves and our families.