Lessons Learned From Grief

On May 6, 2018, I spoke to the congregation of The Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul in Burlington, Vermont about the suicide of my sister Georgia; the heroin overdose of my son Stephen; and the fatal car-train collision I witnessed in Chadwick, Illinois when I was a kid that killed three people, including a boy who was about my age at the time. Here's hoping you'll find encouragement to see you through whatever traumas that have happened in your life. Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/stpaulscathedral/lessons-learned-from-grief-20180506-john-dedakis

My youngest son Stephen.
Steve was a fun and funny guy.
Sadly, his life was cut short by a heroin overdose in August 2011.
He was 22.

My sister Georgia. She could have been a concert pianist or a surgeon.
Instead, she took her life in 1980 at the age of 38.

This is the railroad crossing in Chadwick, Illinois where I witnessed a car-train collision in 1959.
The crash killed three people, including Raymond Stage, 11, a boy about my age at the time.
I named my protagonist Lark Chadwick after the town, beginning with my first novel Fast Track.