What happens when a parent loses a child? What do we understand and what can we do about it? This remarkable little book provides many of the answers. There are chapters on grief and secondary losses, the effects on other members of the family and surviving children, anniversaries and memories and, of course, funerals. What sets this book apart is the way it is written. The first half of each chapter is told in the first person by the grieving parent, Tracy Dowling, which I thought were both insightful and extremely well-written; she has a remarkable memory for detail. The second half of each chapter is written by a counsellor, Christine Young, who explains what we understand and what we can do from a professional perspective. Concentrating on one parents saga holds your attention and makes this book more focused, which can only heighten its value to anybody studying palliative care, particularly paediatric palliative care.
