How does one go on after the loss of a child? How do you want to take another breathe, walk another step, live another day knowing that the child you so loved and cherished is gone?
Rob and Anna met at Cambridge, they fall in love and marry and after a time two becomes three as they welcome their beautiful son, Jack into the world. They are so enamored with Jack for it was very hard for Anna to conceive. Jack loves special things, tall buildings, taking photographs, and his special cheese toast. He grows with their love to the age of five and then the world they have created shatters as Jack stumbles in the playground and after being checked by the doctors, they receive devastating news.
As the story continues Jack’s life becomes filled with doctor and hospital visits, and Rob and Anna try to navigate their way through this news which will eventually shatter everything. Searching for something, anything that will help Jack, Rob finds an online group and through one of their members receives just the hope he wants to latch onto. As Jack becomes sicker the strain of this all places many cracks in their marriage and as they struggle facing the inevitable they part and each handles the devastation in different ways.
This was a heart breaking story, one that truly affirms that losing a child is the very worst torture a parent can go through. It was an emotional story, one that brought tears to my eyes on many occasions. When reading such a book as this, one can reflect on how very fortunate they are to have had children who are healthy and grow. It is a reminder to always cherish what you have with them and find moments of joy always in their birth and growth in this world.
“At sunset the little soul that had come with the dawning went away, leaving heartbreak behind it” (L.M. Montgomery)
Thanks once again to my local library for having a copy of this wonderful book. Luke Allnutt has written a book relying on his own experiences with this devastating illness we all know as cancer.
Luke Allnutt is the author of Unspoken, a Kindle Single about the death of his father. This is his debut novel.
yaya_reads (Marialyce) 