Writing about my words...

An interesting week writing. The writing class assignment was to write a description of my memoir in just one sentence. Here is what I wrote: Dubious Grief reflects a journey of loss caused by the death of a loved one, grief at being left behind, and growth through creating a new life. It took several revisions to come up with one sentence, but I think it works. I adapted this from a one paragraph description of the book.

Dubious Grief describes the anguish of losing a loved one to death. Loss begins with the diagnosis of a terminal illness - lung cancer. A year of medical treatment -chemotherapy, radiation, and narcotics to manage pain, leads to the inevitable outcome - physical death. With death comes the realization that the one you love has left you behind. All you want is to be with the one you love. It is not a death wish; you don’t want to be alone, in this world, without him. Dubious grief is not knowing if or when grief will end. Will the longing not to be alone ever end or will it simply exist for the rest of your life. Anger, sorrow, shame, guilt occur. Isolation, withdrawal from the social world happens. In time you reestablish social connections. Each person’s journey through loss, grief, and creation of a new life is different. Eventually you find a way to create a new life.

The exercise helped me hone in on a way to talk about the book.