Assiniboia author Melanie Delorme, who is also a teacher, will be holding a book signing at the Shurniak Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 12 at 7 p.m.
Her book “After the Flowers Die: A Handbook of Heartache, Hope and Healing” is based on her grieving and healing process after she lost her eight-year old son Garrett in an accident. The book is written as a guide that follows the alphabet, with each letter discussing a particular theme or aspect: for example, “B is for Bitterness” and so on. Delorme has intended her book for other parents who have lost a child at any age.
Her work is also a book that family and friends can give to others who are experiencing such a loss. She describes this work as a companion to the grieving process. Some readers may be going through the loss of a child and feel alone on their journey of grieving and healing. Her book reaches out to others with understanding.
For Delorme, writing the book was a healing experience in itself, although it was emotionally-draining at the same time. But going through this creative process has helped her put her grieving into perspective and given her purpose. The experience of a loss of a child is difficult to navigate. For parents, this is not what you plan for your child. For friends and family the topic can be uncomfortable and they often find it difficult to know what to say to grieving parents. Unless someone has gone through such a loss, they will find it difficult to understand the experience. The book addresses some of these aspects based on Delorme’s own context.
What she really hopes to offer to readers is comfort and hope and that they are not alone. Delorme explains that losing a child is a tragedy that no one recovers from completely. She experiences her grieving and healing process as a lifelong journey where the immediate pain can be assuaged by time, but painful memories easily resurface because there are daily reminders that a child is missing.
The loss of a child impacts the parenting of other children in the family, another topic in her book. Delorme and her husband have two other children. She noted that one challenging aspect when a child is lost becomes remembering to parents the other children in the family. “Those children also need discipline and caring,” she explained, describing her own experience. She noted that Garrett’s accident has also changed her perspective about parenting. For example, she would counsel parents now to stop worrying about the little things in life that don’t matter.
“After the Flowers Die” is available online through Amazon books, Indigo-Chapters bookstores as well as McNally Bookstore.
