Resources

"My Brother's Shadows" by Hayley Reynolds

Hayley Reynolds is a New Zealander who lived through the illness and death from cancer of her beloved brother, Wayne. She was 22 years old when her brother Wayne, then 16, was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Beautifully written, this book covers more of Wayne's life and struggle to exist, than it does her reactions to his inevitable death. The siblings were obviously very close, and Hayley's description of her efforts to help her brother, and her devastation at his death, will resonate with many of our members, especially those who have had to cope with the death of a loved sibling. Some may find the graphic descriptions too close to the bone, but there is no attempt to sensationalise. Rather it is an honest description of a very difficult time.

Hayley is intensely religious, and it is her relationship to God which helps her through. She says, near the end of the book, "This whole ordeal has burned an intense desire in me to see this world put right again. My capacity for hope is now a lot larger"

"Once Upon a Shooting Star" by Carolyn Salter

Carolyn Salter was born in South Australia, and spent her childhood in a small rural town, south of Adelaide, being educated there and in Adelaide. She has lived with her husband, David, in Western Australia, and overseas and is now residing in the New England area of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales where they have a grazing property raising beef cattle. For many years they ran an agricultural aviation company, and still have aircraft, in which they have travelled extensively, both in Australia and overseas. They have an interest in historic and antique aeroplanes.

The poetry is, in essence, an evolution of grief after the loss of their son in an aircraft accident, coming after the loss of a brother and mother. It is a glimpse into the feelings of disbelieving, of anger, of utter despair, of desperate missing and the determined struggle through all these emotions to some sort of peace and acceptance. But more than that. It is also a spiritual journey, in which much has been learned of the nature of self, the relationship between humans, and beyond humanity. It is a discovery of choices and decisions and who we are and why we are - and that there is so much more to learn. It is about one struggle in the kaleidoscope challenges of life. The book was launched at the The Compassionate Friends 2002 "Friends Downunder" Third International Gathering Sydney.

This book is available through the Compassionate Friends Drop in Centre in Sydney at a cost of $22.50 posted in Australia, or $26.00 overseas. (a portion of the purchase price goes to TCF NSW)

"Riding the Blue Moth" by Bill Hancock

This cycling memoir, written by the coordinator of the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament, begins in 2001, when Hancock's son, Will, died in an airplane crash, along with several members of the Oklahoma State basketball team and its staff. Grief stricken, the author and his wife stumbled through their daily routines, unable to conceive of anything that would bring them back to some sort of normality. Then inspiration struck.

The author decided to follow through with a project he had been planning before his son's death: a cross-country bicycle trip. With his wife as his SAG (a biker acronym, meaning "support and guidance"), Hancock embarked on a journey that would take him from shore to shore and from numbing grief to new life. Much more than a sports book, this is an exploration of desolation and the incredible lengths we sometimes have to go to conquer it. Only the very cold reader will get through this one without shedding a few tears.

David Pitt Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.