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Book Reviews…
“Shadow Living is an excellent story of a survivor, written for survivors.” —William Phenn of Reader Views “Shadow Living promises to give readers hope that they too can come face-to-face with and heal from grief.”—D.L. Carpenter, President of Creative Ink "Deborah tells a sad, yet compelling story."—Cheryl Dunlop, editor and author, Follow Me As I Follow Christ and Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Narnia (September 2007). Excerpts… “I would like to dedicate Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief to the millions of people around the world who grieve daily for their loved ones. I pray that you’ll find solace in Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief as you read my story of loss, grief, and my earnest struggle to live again and reach beyond the shadows of my pain. I know Clyde would have wanted me to live again. With God’s strength, I will, and so will you. “In Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief, I share my very intimate walk with you through the world of grief onto the other side where joy and heavenly peace awaits. I put a face to grief. Though my story’s isn’t a pretty one, I felt it needed to be told. This is my story, and it begins on a brisk spring day on April 24, 1995…the day we buried Clyde and the day my shadow living began. “I stared at the American flag that draped the golden, caramel-colored casket in front of me, trying desperately to make sense of the muted reality that Clyde was gone. He wasn’t with us anymore. Even though he was laid before my eyes, I couldn’t believe my husband was in a coffin. Everything had happened very quickly, right in front of me, and I hadn’t had time to recover. “During the viewing of Clyde’s body on that late April morning, my mind kept trying to touch base with the reality that it was my husband lying in that casket, so still and motionless. And even though my eyes saw him, my mind was incapable of comprehending that Clyde was gone. He had died, slipping away from me into death, and I couldn’t do anything about it. “I was oblivious to the days of anguish ahead and could barely hold on. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was in shock, the first of many stages in the grieving process. “I was a walking zombie—living in the shadows of death while fighting desperately to remain with the living. For the first few years of living as a widow, I walked through the motions of living day by day, but deep within I wasn’t doing much living at all. I was existing—simply existing in the wind. I felt part of me had been cut off; my best half had been torn, ripped from the rest of my body. “No matter how much I screamed at the top of my voice or threw furniture from one wall to the other, the reality was that Clyde had gone away and left me to suffer a miserable existence. So, I began to feel sorry for myself. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was progressing into another phase of grief—leaving the shock of seeing Clyde die before my eyes and now facing true reality that Clyde would no longer walk in the door saying, “Hi honey, I’m home. “Darkness overwhelmed the daylight once again as I found myself surrounded with sadness, watching the darkness engulf the daylight whole. I felt choked with pain and agony as I tossed and turned each night. I tried desperately to go to sleep. I would have given anything to simply close my eyes and drift into a deep sleep, but I couldn’t.” Everyone who has lost a spouse, a child, a close family member or even a friend will connect to Pitts’ story of love, pain, and faith as she dedicates the book to the millions of people who grieve daily. Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief is a must read, an unforgettable story, written with candor, soul, and love. Deborah Slappey Pitts June 29, 2007 |
