Family Collaborates To Write Book About Grief

Posted on October 12th, 2007 by Dave

Well it hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve made the suggestion. Let me explain. Recently I went to dinner with a friend. By the way we met and she treated me to a meal a place she really likes; Chen’s in Wriggleyville. For you out-of-towners, that means it’s within walking distance of where the Cubs play ball. She had a taste for sushi and I had a taste for Chinese food IN a restaurant. Well Chen’s claim to fame is that, for a reasonable price, they do Chinese food AND Japanese sushi. They have a very elegant décor, plus the whole front end of the place opens out to the sidewalk-of course they’ll be closing up those giant windows REALLY soon. Man! It was hot as all hell 2 days ago-in the low 90’s, and now it’s in the upper 40’s! That’s Chicago.

My friend and I hadn’t seen each other in many years, so we had a lot of history to cover. One topic was about a friend that had passed. So that night we didn’t go into any prolonged discussion about the issue. But a few days later I suggested that maybe she and her family could do a writing project; share their collective memories. They’re all very strong writers and by each writing their own section nobody would have to carry the whole burden of writing a book. And actually, it really wouldn’t matter if they decided to publish or not. That would be icing on the cake; a way to celebrate the person’s life with the rest of the world. But to me, the most important thing is finding a way to move from sad memories to more positive memories. And having had some painful grief in my life, I’m here to tell you; there’s not much you can DO with grief. You can’t really change that feeling, so a project is a great way to work through it. Here’s an example of a collaborative book.