Lewistown Sentinel article about new book that helps children cope with grief. Campbell's memoir walks you through all the stages of dealing with grief and then clinical depression that she experienced beginning at age eleven after her first encounter with death when her grandmother dies.

Everyone must deal with the grief of losing a loved one at one time or another in their lives.  For some it is easier than others.  For a young girl in the 1960's it seemed almost impossible.

Linda Campbell of McClure was that young girl, struggling with the death of her beloved grandmother, Sallie Irene (Merrill) Bishop.  She chronicles her tumultuous youth in the book.  "Tears for Grandma" published by Publish America.

Born and raised in Lewistown, Campbell lived for five years in North Carolina before returning to the Juniata Valley, where she met her husband and started a family.  Though she majored in social work at Penn State and currently works at the Department of Welfare office in Lewistown, Campbell said she has dreamed of writing a book for several years.

"I found out it wasn't as easy as I thought," she said with a laugh.

It took 3 1/2 years of writing in her spare time for Campbell to complete "Tears for Grandma."

According to a news release from Publish America, the memoir is about Campbell's childhood in Central Pennsylvania.  She is forced to face the illness of her paternal grandmother who is diagnosed with cancer and comes to live with Campbell's family because she could no longer care for herself.  Nine months later she dies, forcing Campbell, then ll, to deal with grief for the first time.

Campbell said her grandmother's death in 1965 "affected her so much she went to a doctor" who put her on anxiety medicine.  She said in those days there was no grief counseling for children like there is today.  Around this same time in her life Campbell said she had switched schools, went through puberty and had to cope with peer pressure, all of which contributed to a bout of depression during her high school years.

"Tears for Grandma" was a way for Campbell to help other children in similar situations.

"It's about a child's grieving process. (I wrote it) to help kids understand grief," she explained.  "My parents weren't real expressive and we didn't talk about it (death).  I presented it (wrote it) from a kid's point of view."

Once she finished writing the book, Campbell had to find a publisher.  She sent numerous letters to publishers throughout the country and received her "share of rejection leters."  Meanwhile she contacted Arlene Uslander, an editor from Indiana, who suggested she contact Publish America.  In February she learned the publishing company had accepted her book.

Campbell is uncertain how profitable her writing career will be.  She said Publish America will pay her royalties twice a year.

"I'm not expecting to get rich from it," she said.

"Tears for Grandma" became a family affair when Campbell's daughter, Jessie, designed the cover of the book.  The 20-year-old graphic design student used a photograph of a bridge in Lingle Valley as the cover art.  The bridge was Campbell's favorite spot as a child and to her also symbolized the bridge between life and death and old and young.  Writing the book was a catharsis of sorts for Campbell as she relived events from her past.

"I experienced going back and looking at it (her life) all again.  Coming full circle," said Campbell, who became a first time grandmother the same week the book came out.  "It was like the end of one life and the beginning of another."

"Tears for Grandma" will be realease to book stores and online retailers like amazon.com on August 2.  Advance order of the books are available directly from Publish America for $21.95 plus $3 shipping and handling.  For an advance copy of the book, call (240) 529-1031 or visit www.publishamerica.com on the Internet.

Even though she has not received her copy of "Tears for Grandma" yet, Campbell is already busy writing her second book, a work of fiction about a person's struggle through the welfare system.