Finding your Way After Your Parent Dies

Rating:
Summary: A gift for searching and struggling adult children
Review: As the author of this book I simply want to invite you to contact me if you need to talk. This book has instruction and what I believe to be very important information. Most of all, it is an invitation to explore the needs, issues and feelings that have become your grief journey. Keep us in mind if you need to talk.

Rating:
Summary: Resourceful and Comforting
Review: FINDING YOUR WAY AFTER YOUR PARENT DIES is a book that gives people many options in dealing with his/her grief. It is written in a way that gives the reader an impression that Rev. Gilbert is Pastorally with you throughout the contents of this book. At the end of each chapter, Richard Gilbert provides people with words in a time when people feel at a loss for them. These final thoughts, opportunities, and prayer inspire people to look within for strength beyond themselves. They encourage people to heal through faith in a Holy Presence that is very real inside us all. Thanks, Richard Gilbert, for allowing anyone who reads this book to be cared for by your thoughtfulness and prayerful insights into the soul. -- Samuel Oliver, author of, WHAT THE DYING TEACH US: LESSONS ON LIVING.

Rating:
Summary: Finding Your Way after Your Parent Dies
Review: My mother and my oldest son were killed in an automobile accident seven months ago. I have already read many books on coping with the death of a child and losing a loved one through sudden death. This is the first one I have read on dealing with the death of a parent. I found the chapters to be too short and not enough depth. I did, however, like the "Thought, Opportunity, and Prayer" section at the end of each chapter.

Rating:
Summary: Help for those who are sorrowing
Review: The loss of a parent is one of the profoundly life-changing traumas of our lives. As we grieve for our mother or father, we often wonder where to turn to understand our feelings and our frustrations. This is a book that can help us in the many and varied aspects our sorrow. In Finding Your Way after Your Parent Dies, the author, Richard B. Gilbert, walks with us each step of the way. Gilbert is a minister in the Evangelical Anglican Church in America and a specialist in bereavement care. In this slim volume, Gilbert serves as a trusted friend in helping those who are grieving walk step by step through this particular dark valley.

Although he writes primarily for those who are recently bereaved, the author has a fine chapter for those who lost a parent many years ago, in childhood, and who are now dealing with that loss as an adult. Other chapters deal with relating to your surviving parent, how to deal with loneliness, marking appropriate boundaries, practicing healthy living, seeking counseling and the gift of time. Each chapter concludes with a summary page that offers a brief, inspirational thought, an opportunity for doing something related to that issue, and lovely prayers.

Among the very helpful aspects of the book one of the best is the long list of resources in the back, separated by the chapter topics. It would certainly be a starting point for those who either want to explore an aspect of the book further, or who were not helped by that particular section of the book and need "something more." There are resources listed that are written specifically for men or for women, both of whom have specific and not necessarily similar concerns when a parent dies. When a man's father dies, for example, he is often faced not only with the reality that his turn is next, but also about how much of his life has already "slipped by". If untended, such grief can lead to some of the more extreme behaviors of what is often dubbed a "midlife crisis". In the back of the book there is also a selection of helpful scripture, hymns and prayers.
This book may not be for everyone who is grieving for a parent; since each person grieves in her or his own way. Certainly there are alternative, including talking to trusted family members, friends, pastors and those who have waked the same path of sorrow. And there is a place for silence as well, a period of time when the subject is too painful to read or talk about. While this book may not be what every recently bereaved son or daughter needs, it is a warm and empathetic book, worth considering.
One final note, this is a companion to the book to Finding Your Way after Your Child Dies, from the same publisher.

Rating:
Summary: Help for those who are sorrowing
Review: The loss of a parent is one of the profoundly life-changing traumas of our lives. As we grieve for our mother or father, we often wonder where to turn to understand our feelings and our frustrations. This is a book that can help us in the many and varied aspects our sorrow. In Finding Your Way after Your Parent Dies, the author, Richard B. Gilbert, walks with us each step of the way. Gilbert is a minister in the Evangelical Anglican Church in America and a specialist in bereavement care. In this slim volume, Gilbert serves as a trusted friend in helping those who are grieving walk step by step through this particular dark valley.

Although he writes primarily for those who are recently bereaved, the author has a fine chapter for those who lost a parent many years ago, in childhood, and who are now dealing with that loss as an adult. Other chapters deal with relating to your surviving parent, how to deal with loneliness, marking appropriate boundaries, practicing healthy living, seeking counseling and the gift of time. Each chapter concludes with a summary page that offers a brief, inspirational thought, an opportunity for doing something related to that issue, and lovely prayers.

Among the very helpful aspects of the book one of the best is the long list of resources in the back, separated by the chapter topics. It would certainly be a starting point for those who either want to explore an aspect of the book further, or who were not helped by that particular section of the book and need "something more." There are resources listed that are written specifically for men or for women, both of whom have specific and not necessarily similar concerns when a parent dies. When a man's father dies, for example, he is often faced not only with the reality that his turn is next, but also about how much of his life has already "slipped by". If untended, such grief can lead to some of the more extreme behaviors of what is often dubbed a "midlife crisis". In the back of the book there is also a selection of helpful scripture, hymns and prayers.
This book may not be for everyone who is grieving for a parent; since each person grieves in her or his own way. Certainly there are alternative, including talking to trusted family members, friends, pastors and those who have waked the same path of sorrow. And there is a place for silence as well, a period of time when the subject is too painful to read or talk about. While this book may not be what every recently bereaved son or daughter needs, it is a warm and empathetic book, worth considering.
One final note, this is a companion to the book to Finding Your Way after Your Child Dies, from the same publisher.

Rating:
Summary: Rewrite Required
Review: There are many books and articles on grief, there are also many books and articles on spirituality. This is the first book that ties them together in such a sensitive way. It acknowledges the questions and thoughts we have at this confusing time in our lives. It gently plants the seed of opportunity, as well as offers hope. The Thought, Opportunity and Prayer part of each chapter allows us the ability to be slective in what we want to accomplish, while keeping us focused for short periods of time. This allows us to bring closure to some areas and move on to others. With the loss of a parent, you are truly trying to find your way, Richard Gilbert helps us start this journey. If you have lost a parent, this book brings you comfort on your journey. It is a gentle journey that brings us hope to finding our way.

Rating:
Summary: Rewrite Required
Review: This book is not useful, it glosses over so many key themes and can be considered condescending. The style tries to appear 'spiritual' but is instead, laced with traditional religious tones. I suggest they get it straight, one way or another, and not try to appear to be what it is not. Secondly, having read a dozen of these books upon the anniversary of a parents death, I find this book to be the least appealing. It states that it does not have a custom-packaged solution to something as personal as grief, yet, one finds these mini-solutions laced up throughout the book. I suggest you not read the book, much less purchase it, unless you have absolutely nothing better to do. I'm sorry I purchased it.