NeverGone:
Reframing the Death
and Grieving of the One You Love
After
my daughter died, it took me six months to discover
the healing powers of writing. A year more passed before
I found myself completely captivated by Photoshopping.
And now, I have put these two life-saving pastimes together
and birthed a tiny new book.
NeverGone, with its twelve short illustrated
stories
(many from my recent blogs), is about regaining and
redefining life. It examines different ways to look
at death.
I wanted to make a book that would hug the heartbroken.
Thinking of all my friends who grieve for their loved
ones,
I tried to plant hope on each page. Stories with pictures
are
like comfort food.
I always said I would never self-publish anything. And
my 200-page memoir manuscript (Duets with a Dead Daughter)
may end up being like one of those grown children who
never leave home. But to transform one’s work
into a freshly bound, polished package is to feel your
blood turn into maple syrup. I cashed in all my hope
and took the leap.
It
is little, 32 pages cover-to-cover, half the size of
a piece of copy paper. But writing it, and producing
the illustrations, opened a window to the sun from the
dark basement of my grief. I poured all my time, energy,
and love into it.
As if it were another daughter.
