The Orphaned Adult: Confronting the Death of a Parent

I lost my precious mother, my best friend, five years ago and was still struggling to find a balance between finding joy in my current life and letting go of that hopeless sense of loss. This book helped me to better understand living fully through the seasons of our lives, and accepting the fact that dying is an unavoidable part of living.

I am using it in my practice as a nurse.

I recently lost my father and my brother-in-law mailed this book to me. I felt the whole way through that the author was speaking directly to me with his insights about how losing a parent affects an adult: feelings of loss, guilt, the looming reality of our own deaths, sibling issues, relationships with our children, etc. It was amazingly relevant to me and I have since bought a pile to give to my contemporaries who seem to all be losing their parents at the same time. At a number of times while reading this book I experienced moments of clarity where I could see why certain things were bothering me. More than once I had to put down the book to cry (and hey, I'm a guy). I'm not generally into self-help books, but this was better therapy than talking to a shrink.

I lost my father 2 weeks ago and found a copy of this book. I read it on a whim and I am so glad I did! This is a book written out of love and a great resource for anyone who is loosing, has lost and will loose a parent. I highly recommend this book.