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IN PRAISE OF
Received a 5 star rating from Doody Publishing Weekly Updates!
"This book is written in a tender manner and is very personal. While
reading this book I felt as though the writer was sitting in my living
room telling me her story and how she was able to go on after the death
of her grandson. It was easy to read and use some of the ideas in
clinical practice. I have suggested this book to several professionals
who routinely assist family members coping with the loss of a child.
I was able to utilize this book by reading parts of it to a family who
lost of their 20-month-old child in a freak accident. The family
found this book closely matched some of their emotional experiences as
they tried to cope with their loss."
—Pamela Marcus, RN, MSCS, Doody Publishing Weekly
Updates, Doody.com
"Grandparents Cry Twice can assist grieving grandparents, their
friends, and family or professionals who wish to understand the special
dynamics of grandparent grief. The author tells her story and uses it to
illustrate the dynamics of the helping and healing processes and illustrates
the manner in which grandparent grief is different. The book would be an
insightful and sensitive gift to give grandparents who have lost a grandchild.
The friends and family of grieving grandparents can gain awareness of what
to say and do to help their loved ones. Professionals who counsel or assist
families can gain insight about the multiple losses that accompany the
death of a child. Grief therapists can benefit from using this book as
a tool for grandparents they may see in therapy. Students in the helping
professions will gain understanding about diverse types of grief. All readers
will be touched by the tender and insightful manner in which Reed shares
her own grief experience to help others."
—David E. Balk, Death Studies, Volume 25
"Mary Lou Reed has done a masterful job of expressing what it is to experience the death of grandchild in a way that only a grieving grandparent can express. This was written in a down-to-earth, very personal style that all bereaved grandparents should find to be meaningful and helpful. An equally helpful set of chapters examines how grandparents can help their grieving children as well as their surviving grandchildren. Reed does an excellent job of communicating her struggles, joys, frustrations, and disappointments throughout this very important and timely book. It is a 'must read' for any parent, grandparent, or grief professional."
—Bert Hayslip, Jr., Ph.D., University of North Texas, Denton, TX, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Volume 49, Number 3
ABOUT THE BOOK
Grandparents Cry Twice: Help for Bereaved Grandparents
is a book about grandparents' dual sorrow when a grandchild dies. They
cry for their lost grandchild and they also cry for the terrible grief
they see their own child having to bear. The author, Mary Lou Reed, writes
of her experiences when her beloved grandson, Alex, died. Through her personal
story she touches the universal in all grandparents' grief.
In the preface Reed shares excerpts from condolence
letters written by the third-grade classmates of Alex's older brother,
Curtis, and tells how those letters helped her grieving family.
The first chapters describe the joy felt from Alex's
birth, his life, and the agony of his illness and death at two-and-a-half
years; the confusion, and the struggle to continue functioning; and Reed's
personal frustration with the lack of applicable information about grandparents'
grief.
Following chapters look at the grief theories of
various authorities and their relevancy for parents and grandparents. Information
the author learned from experience, study, and correspondence with other
grandparents is used in the chapters on helping themselves, helping the
grieving parents, and their surviving children.
Other chapters make suggestions for memorials, and
personal rituals as well as how others may assist or hurt. The closing
chapter is an overview of the author's journey through grief. Appendices
include selected poems, a list of resources, and a bibliography.
Intended Audience: Grandparents who
have experienced a death of a grandchild, death educators, grief counselors,
psychologists, clergy, college students, self-help support groups, and
those who want to understand more about dying and death.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Lou Reed, RN, MA, has spent most of her life caring
for people either in a hospital setting, or as a mother and grandmother.
Her early years in nursing were spent as an operating room nurse and supervisor.
For the past fifteen years, she has turned her attention to behavioral
health care and since 1989, when her beloved grandson Alex died, to the
area of grief counseling.
A member of the Association for Death Education and
Counseling, Reed currently works for a local behavioral health agency.
She facilitates a weekly grief group and works with the elderly at a local
Senior Center, training volunteers as Peer Counselors. Reed is interested
in, and pursues education in many different fields. She currently holds
a BA in Humanities and an MA in Art History from Arizona State University.
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