This story of ‘a mother’s worst nightmare’ will wrench at the guts of any parent. I was impressed by the author’s skill in writing so movingly about bereavement without the least cloying or maudlin sentiment. It is not a depressing read, despite the subject, and I am sure that reading about how the mother gets through the stages of grief could be a consoling process for someone going through a similar experience.
There is no word in the English language that adequately sums up the continuing relationship you have with the other parent of your child, when the two of you are no longer together. But the fact that Patrick is here now, that he is the person I want to be here now, more than anyone else in the world, says it all. Patrick is the only person who can really understand what I’m going through, the only person who can share it by experiencing a near-identical set of emotions.
