The Alchemy of Loss: A Young Widow's TransformationLike A Year of Magical Thinking, this powerful and touching book is both an inspirational read and a comfort to those who are looking for help in overcoming loss. The phone rang. It was my husband Arron telling me that he was at Windows of the World in the World Trade Center. “There’s been a bomb!” he said. I had been preparing my six-year-old daughter for her second day of first grade, balancing my two-year-old son on my hip, and I was distracted. “OK . . .” I managed to say back. It was 8:49 a.m. on September 11, 2001. He never came home. Abigail Carter is smart, funny, perceptive, and bereft. In the eyes of most, herself included, she had it all — a full life with a loving successful husband and two beautiful children. But in a horrifying instant watched by the world, it was gone, and her life and her children’s were changed irreparably. How does one learn to live again after tragedy? The Alchemy of Loss is Abby’s moving story of answering that unimaginable question. Veering away from the trite and pat grief books, which offer one-size-fits-all solutions to this most deeply personal and unique experience, she realizes that each person must forge her own path through grief, and that there are no right answers. Abby’s journey took her six years, in which she turned everything she knew about herself upside down in order to learn to live again. She charts this journey in the year’s most remarkable memoir. The Alchemy of Loss is her gift to us all — reminding us that life throws up roadblocks we can’t anticipate, and that we cannot live well if we live with regrets. |
Contents
Limbo | 13 |
Hallelujah | 25 |
Not Quite Normal | 34 |
Singing Nuns | 51 |
THE WHITENING | 67 |
Everyday Hero | 82 |
Working Widow | 97 |
Serpent Rising | 110 |
Zooming | 171 |
Moving | 181 |
PART THREE THE REDDENING | 199 |
Shedding Skin | 229 |
Sleepless in Seattle | 243 |
Testaments to Love and Loss | 263 |
Lead to Gold | 272 |
Acknowledgements | 287 |
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Common terms and phrases
anger angry anniversary Arron Arron's death asked began bird bath birthday Brian building Caelin Carter and Olivia cheques Christmas Daddy despite dinner door Eagle Rock Reservation emotions Encompys eyes family members fear feel felt finally friends garden giggled going grief grieving Ground Zero hand happy hear hoped husband imagined Janet Jean Chrétien Jersey Jill Joe Clark kids kitchen knew later laugh living looked loss loved Macy Gray memorial Michael missing Montclair morning mother move neighbours never night okay Perhaps phone call Port Hope realized Seattle seemed Selena September 11 singing nuns smell smiled someone sorry spent stood Sylvia Browne talk tears tell things thought tiny told took Toronto tourtière tried trying turned voice walked wanted watched wearing weeks widow wondered World Trade Center worried