Grief: A Mama’s Unwanted Journey
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Many of the days, weeks, and months following Joseph’s death were horrific. I grieved him as deeply as I loved him. I sat in his room, read the things he wrote, and listened to his music. I did everything I possibly could to stay connected to him. I couldn’t get used to being without my son. Night after night I begged God to let me dream about Joseph so I could hear his voice, look into his eyes, and embrace him one more time.
Going through the basic motions of each day was like rowing a boat through quicksand. It took everything I had and left me worn and weary. I looked at photos of him and remembered each moment … the day of his birth, the first walk with Daddy down a sidewalk and those little bare feet, watching cookies bake in the oven all wrapped up in his green blanket, the first time his toes met the ocean and took his breath away, and then all grown up at the beach with brothers, eating watermelon on the porch. Moments that once brought tears of happiness to my eyes did so again, but this time, tears of pain. I didn’t want to look at him in pictures. I wanted to look at him in life. Pictures became remnants of my happiness.
Grief didn’t come with instructions. It was a crash course. I vaguely remember learning the Stages of Grief in Psychology 101. What I was completely unprepared for is that they come and go multiple times a day, sometimes an hour. They wreaked havoc on my mind and body. I thought you went through each step one by one, one nice neat step at a time, and then voilà – it was over. I knew nothing.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Grief: A Mama’s Unwanted Journey is not for those looking for pat answers, quick fixes, or easy solutions to work through, but for those on the journey through the sting of death. It is also for those who may one day walk arm in arm with another down this horrible road, facing grief’s raw and searing pain.
“Great grief is a ferocious fire. It can be a destroying or a refining fire—or both at once. This book combines searing honesty with wisdom and consolation. Most importantly, it offers realistic hope that while grief and suffering are real words—about the lost one and those who have lost—they do not have to be the defining or final words. That final word is love, something that even suffering does not erase.”
—Daniel Taylor, author of The Skeptical Believer
“‘We cannot walk out of the cemetery and into life as we knew it. We must take time to grieve.’ So says my friend Shelley, who knows the path to her son’s grave well. If you are tired of platitudes, tired of the trite but untrue, this book is for you, as real and raw as it gets. Grieving moms, walk with her, learn from her successes and her mistakes, and hold her hand on the unwanted journey in the storm-tossed life-boat of grief. She will guide you safely back to sanity’s shore.”
—Dane Skelton, pastor of Faith Community Church and author of Jungle Flight: Spiritual Adventures at the Ends of the Earth
About the Author
Shelley Ramsey lost her seventeen-year-old son when his car suddenly struck a tree on a winding country road. In these deeply personal reflections she details her son’s death and her journey through grief. Shelley and her husband, Phil, reside in South Boston, Virginia.