From My Son's Garden is a detailed account of a family's journey with grief after the devastating loss of a teenage son. It takes the reader through the first three years after the tragedy and shows how this family survives.
Brenda Hahn Greene portrays the shattered devastation of the Greene family from the loss of their son. From My Son's Garden so vividly depicts circumstances and barren grief, that it may literally take a reader's breath away to participate.
From My Son's Garden walks us through the events of this mother's, and family's tragedy, weaving a detailed path of survival; including step by step advice on how to continue living after the death of a child, sibling, friend. Ultimately, she leads us to a victorious, triumphant ending in which the Greene family has successfully pulled together the pieces of their lives in unity.
In this memorial, Joby Greene's life is ultimately celebrated by the proceeds from the sales of From My Son's Garden being donated to a scholarship fund in his name. Brenda has indeed found a way for her son's name and memory to live on in this world.
Excerpt
"Two days before his burial, we began our son's garden. My husband and I had our son cremated and buried behind our house so we could have him close to us. He was killed when he was only 16.
"It was from the garden that the ideas for this writing grew. I began pounding away on the word processor. I cut through the layers of emotions just as I cut away at the land in preparation for the garden...This physical process of planting, weeding, and replanting was my mission and my therapy. I struggled to create a beautiful living memorial from my son's untimely death."
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Reviews for "From My Son's Garden: A Personal Story of Growth and Healing After the Loss of a Child"
Reviewed by Suzi Smith
4/11/2002
Hahn-Greene's Garden Offers Hope to Those Who Need The Seeds
Suzi
Kentucky (4/7/2002) Brenda Hahn Greene has written an essential text for every parent who has lost a child, and she does it with hope and healing as the message. Having lost her eldest son in 1997, Greene, her husband, daughter and son struggled to find a way to put their family back together after the death of "Joby" scattered the pieces of family life into broken shards. This small but important text is the result of this struggle. Greene does not sugarcoat the experience of this unnatural grief. Admitting that the loss of a child is more devastating than the loss of a parent, grandparent, or any other family member, Greene takes the reader through the denial, anger, acceptance, growth, and healing of one who has lost identity to find some normalcy and hope, goals every parent who has lost a child seeks. FROM MY SON'S GARDEN offers hope in the form of a memorial, a garden created by friends and family, where her son's ashes are buried. As the garden grows, so grows the hope of this family. The journey is, however, a turbulent one, and each family member--a mother [Greene], a father, a sister, and a brother--finds individual paths toward health and peace in coming to terms with a family tragedy. Greene offers concrete suggestions throughout her book covering the first three years of her life without her son. She does not, however, promise a 'cure.' "There is no quick fix; there is no specific point in time when the wound will completely heal and life will return to 'normal'" she reminds her readers, but there are steps that must be taken, she also insists, if the parents and family members are to cope. Greene organizes her text for her audience knowing that they--not the casual reader who has not experienced this event and lost themselves along the way--need to know what the next day and the day after that and the day after that will bring in terms of solace from the searing pain of separation too soon and unnatural. "People may try to simplify your pain, but it is far complex than anyone realizes unless they have lost a child," she explains to a readership seeking answers. Greene recommends three basic steps that may seem simplistic to the reader who has not lost a child, but profound to those who have. Step one, she writes, is "Taking Care of You and Yours." Step two, "Relating to Others." Step three, perhaps the most helpful of three, "Taking Action" to manage the senselessness and helplessness that follow such a catastrophic event. The thing about Brenda Greene's text that makes it a must-read for all parents in her situation is her candidness about her resulting marriage problems and her relationship with her other children strained and confused during the first year following the death. By presenting these events in a true light and offering management techniques for keeping the family intact, Greene serves her readership well. Every individual who has lost a child knows the pain is singular and unlike any other death. The author addresses this issue with hope and encouragement that survival of those left behind is possible and that life will return in time although not the same life as before the death. This is what this audience wants to know and this is what Brenda Hahn Greene delivers--the truth. Life she comes to understand in her book is different and the pain lessens although the longing remains. This is what parents who have lost children need to know, and this is what Brenda Hahn Greene delivers in a book full of pain and promise that true healing takes place after all, but not without a strong focus, a wealth of strength, and a struggle to live again. We are as our garden grows--able to renew ourselves each year and to live again--but, differently. In this text, Brenda Hahn Greene is the master gardener. Suzie Smith
Planting implies "life." What a beautiful testimony to your son. I am sorry he is not with you. I am proud of you for finding the strength to go on and honor his beautiful memory by planting, writing, and sharing your wisdom. Bless you.
Fortunate indeed is the Man or Woman with a healthy sex drive, who has also learned the art of sex transmutation. For in the source of this vital power also lie the sources of endless Wealth, Health and Genius! And this book tells you exactly how!
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