Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love
Anna Whiston-Donaldson
ISBN: 978-1-60142-519-5
RELEASE: Sep 9, 2014
LENGTH: 224 Pages
PUBLISHER: Convergent
Anna Whiston-Donaldson masterfully
tells of the gut-wrenching struggle of attempting to deal with all of the pain,
sorrow, anguish, and even jealousy which comes with the death of a child in her
book Rare Bird. The book opened some wounds of mine that have been repressed
for decades. In my case the roles are reversed. I was a boy of 12 who had just
lost his Mom at age 44. I became jealous and even envious of other kids who had
a mother still living. Why them, and not me? It would have been good to have
had this book back in 1963.
Whiston-Donaldson
pulls back the veil of her tears and gives glimpses of raw emotion in the life
of a woman who had been dipped in tragedy. She allowed her son and daughter to
play in the rain one evening, and her son (Jack), never came home. As one might
expect this book will put you in the passenger seat on a journey filled with
expectation, and joy which is met by disbelief, grief, and sadness to the nth.
It is difficult to read at times, especially if you have experienced familial death
at a young age. The story is written almost flawlessly as one would expect from
a teacher-turned-blogger. It is a true emotional assault that she lets the
reader share in her pain. The story of an average couple with a son and a
daughter and how their world is torn upside down by the effects of one deluge
of rain. You will sense the pain through her mind’s eye.
As
her son Jack’s favorite verse in the Bible says, “Nothing is impossible with
God” (Mat 19:26). Her faith in God and the support of her family and friends
made it an easier path to walk. I thought it was a fantastic read. I give it 5
stars.
I received a free review copy of this book from Blogging for Books for my honest review.
