If you know someone who has recently suffered a bereavement, you may wish to send them this little book in lieu of a card.
Contained within this slim volume are quotations from Emily Dickinson, Beethoven and many others, along with brief passages of prose from the author, all designed to help an individual cope with the loss of their loved one, and finally to help them celebrate that person's life.
At the end of the book, there is a section where you can make your own notes about what you remember about the dear departed.
This book is not trite, nor full of McNuggets of cliched wisdom, and the author clearly understands the fine line between consoling someone and patronizing them. Indeed, O'Neill is a marriage and family therapist with over twenty-five years experience in practice and in this book has successfully put that experience to good use.
This is a small book, with 144 pages, many of them containing only one sentence of one word. It is a book for someone to refer to in those moments when the waves of grief are breaking, and to give them the courage and strength to go on.