Saints for the Grieving

For someone who has buried a person they love. Twenty-four chapters, sorted by the loss and by what grief does next: the first hours, the question put to God, a spouse, a child, a baby lost before or just after birth, a parent, several deaths close together, a brother or sister or friend, anger, a sudden or violent death, guilt, doubt, grief that will not lift, praying for the dead, anniversaries, a death after estrangement. Each chapter gives three people who lived it, seventy-two in all. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who buried her husband in Italy and then two daughters. Louis and Zelie Martin, who buried four of their nine children. Augustine, who tried not to cry for his mother and could not. David calling Absalom's name. Rizpah guarding her sons' bodies on a rock. Every entry has the life told plainly, a prayer, one thing to do today, and one line to keep. The book does not tell you they are in a better place and leave it there. It says more than once that grief is not weak faith, and it says plainly when to call a doctor, a counselor or 988. An index at the back sorts all seventy-two by what you have lost.

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