Grief Sucks ... But Love Bears All Things: How Grief Tore Me Apart and Put Me Back Together

by Gayle Taylor Davis

Overview

Gayle Taylor Davis had it all — a husband she adored, two successful daughters, and a career she enjoyed. Then one phone call took it all away, when a policeman called to tell her that her husband of 32 years had suddenly died of a heart attack. Plunged into the strange new world of grief, Davis began to write to make sense of her experience.

“Grief Sucks: But Love Bears All Things” is Davis’s personal account of how she climbed out of grief, step by painful step — a no-holds-barred look at personal pain that is rarely shared or talked about. Davis reveals the worst moments of her grief — days of tears, nights of wailing, and thoughts of suicide— and teaches the reader through her example that one can survive the worst.

A brutally honest and intimate portrayal of raw grief in all its pain and ugliness, “Grief Sucks” rejects simpleminded words of comfort to address loss with simple home truths: This is the worst pain you will ever feel. And you will survive it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610351959
Publisher:	Linden Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Born in Pasco, Washington, Gayle Taylor Davis grew up in California’s Central Valley, where she attended California State University, Fresno, and taught high school English for 36 years. Davis’s husband of 32 years, Tony, died in 2005; “Grief Sucks ... But Love Bears All Things” is the product of her personal writing to make sense of the experience of grieving for Tony’s death. Now, Davis is remarried, retired from teaching, and writing a novel. She lives in Clovis, California.

Table of Contents

1. In the beginning . . .2. The Funeral3. The University of Sorrow4. Is it me . . .or is it Memorex? 5. Two Faces of Grief6. The Road is Paved with Good Intentions7. The Long-ness of Days8. Material Girl9. The Guilt-o-meter10. The Barometer of Sorrow- Cloudy with a Chance of Pain11. One Ringy-Dingy . . .12. Let’s Pretend13. The Darktown Cutter’s Ball14. Ripley’s Believe it or . . .What? 15. The Red Badge of Squirmage16. Night Stalker17. The Body Snatcher18. Wakeup Call – 2:00 am19. Oobla-Dee,Oobla-Da ...20. Every Precious Little Thing21. Bumps in the Road22. Just Weird Thoughts23. Follow My Finger . . .24. Saving Grace25. Epiphany26. God Has the Last Word27. Life after Death – Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Dynamic in many ways ... sheds light on there being hope for the hopeless. I would certainly recommend this book for friends who are grieving and my colleagues in hospice. —Becky Klinger, Hospice social worker and counselor.

No other book that I've read on grief quite nails the transition from shock to survival to new strength, and, yes, even to happiness that "Grief Sucks" does. It was very difficult to describe the raw pain that grief can cause and all of the feelings that accompany that pain, but Davis does it and gives hope to continue life in the process. —Cindy Abrahamson, RN BSN

Losing a soul mate is unthinkable. Gayle does what few are courageous enough to do — she gives words to the silence surrounding death. Her commentary is uncensored and unabridged. Her vocabulary is raw, brutally honest, yet tender, vulnerable and intimate. Heart-wrenching, yes, but filled with insight, emotion, unforgettable images that honor life, love and most of all — the resilience of the human spirit. Thank you, Gayle Taylor Davis for inviting us into your private world. —Armen Bacon, Co-author of Griefland: An Intimate Portrait of Love, Loss And Unlikely Friendship (Globe Pequot Press, 2012)

Editorial Reviews

Losing a soul mate is unthinkable. Gayle does what few are courageous enough to do — she gives words to the silence surrounding death. Her commentary is uncensored and unabridged. Her vocabulary is raw, brutally honest, yet tender, vulnerable and intimate. Heart-wrenching, yes, but filled with insight, emotion, unforgettable images that honor life, love and most of all — the resilience of the human spirit. Thank you, Gayle Taylor Davis for inviting us into your private world. —Armen Bacon, Co-author of Griefland: An Intimate Portrait of Love, Loss And Unlikely Friendship (Globe Pequot Press, 2012)

When words carry you from page to page surfacing raw emotions settled deep within your gut that is when you know you have come across a most rare book. Gayle Taylor Davis frames the ordinary moments of life with tender poems and reminds us of how precious even the mundane things of life can be when we have lost someone deeply close to our hearts. Gayle's poems will bring you comfort, understating, a sense of awe and an invitation to trust in love even through the muddy rut work of grief. —Rev. Dr. Christopher Breedlove, Pastor of College Community Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

No other book that I've read on grief quite nails the transition from shock to survival to new strength, and, yes, even to happiness that "Grief Sucks" does. It was very difficult to describe the raw pain that grief can cause and all of the feelings that accompany that pain, but Davis does it and gives hope to continue life in the process. —Cindy Abrahamson, RN BSN

"Grief Sucks" is ultimately an affirmation that recovery is possible from the most terrible of pain, how a seemingly mortal wound can slowly heal. Passages of her poetry intersperse her story of loss and the long, hard journey to acceptance, in this unforgettable and personal true-life story. —Midwest Book Review

"Stimulating and provocative ... arouses feelings, images, and memories. Gayle Taylor Davis has hit the mark ... the gut, not the head." —Allan G. Hedberg, Ph.D., clinical psychologist

Dynamic in many ways ... sheds light on there being hope for the hopeless. I would certainly recommend this book for friends who are grieving and my colleagues in hospice. —Becky Klinger, Hospice social worker and counselor.

From the Publisher