Book Review: Ciara's Gift - Grief Edged with Gold

I remember Sara Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon and watched the footage of the Claremont serial killer with abhorence and disbelief. I felt for the families and their very public encounter with grief and loss. The year was 1996, ten years later I too would be a mother crippled by grief following the loss of a child. Una Glennon and myself share a common thread, we have both lost a beloved adult child and have both become survivors of our own unwanting. 

When Ciara's Gift was published, I brought my copy home and read it cover to cover in one sitting. I loved it, the whole of it. I loved the feel of the embossed cover, the watercolour illustrations and very much the writing. Here a mother gives of herself to honour and remember her beloved daughter. Part memoir, part description, part inspiration, part hope and part survival. It spoke to me on every level.

This is a book I will never give away. I read it and reread it, sometimes all of it, sometimes snippets of it - the parts of the book that "speak to me most", I have highlighted and visit regularly. Una Glennon so eloquently describes the pain of losing a child and how she was affected on every level. When her daughter died, her life changed in that moment, for ever. Her writing is tinged with deep insight and spiritualism and the text is interspersed with quotes aligned to her prose.

Her journey through grief is something every bereaved mother could relate to and ultimately gain comfort and hope from.  This is her dedication:

"To all parents who have lost a child. Grieving never ends but it does not end life"

This is a book reflecting on grief and adaptation to loss, but ultimately of acceptance and appreciation, of love and changing perspective. She says, "When I look back on the time since Ciaras death, I now regard it as a sacred time."  Finally.........."the stranglehold of grief loosened and, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, I emerged a different person, with a different perspective on life."

For anyone who has lost a child or if you know someone who has, this book will long remain a comforting companion.

Until next time

Maureen