Book Nook - My Grief is Not Like Yours

 In My Grief Is Not Like Yours: Learning to Live After Unimaginable Loss, A Daughter’s Journey Theo Boyd writes with honesty and raw emotion about the day that started the contagion of devastating events that would leave her “without hope, without purpose, without direction.” After the terrible shock and pain of losing her Momma, Boyd began writing.

“I had to record my thoughts, questions, feelings, and fears,” she shares. “I needed to read something that hit me as hard as I had been hit.” Boyd shares the details of her family’s unimaginable tragedies, underscoring how quickly life can turn into grief, while also giving readers hope that “with God’s help, and with time and guidance, we will move forward and, once again, bring happiness and hope back into our lives.”

While deeply personal, the book offers a wealth of insights and tools to help anyone grappling with grief feel what they need to feel and then begin to heal. Drawing on her own experience and wisdom from mental health professionals, self-care specialists and spiritual teachers, Boyd encourages and guides readers to: 

• Celebrate and remember everything that made their departed loved ones extraordinary. Start by writing a list of 100 of their defining qualities, talents and quirks.   
• Be gentle with themselves and take care of themselves — which includes giving themselves permission to eat, to sleep, to cry, to yell and curse, to ask for help, and to laugh. 
• Find ways to support others as they grieve, whether by offering to pray together or simply listening, and recognize the caring acts of friends, neighbors and even funeral directors.  
• By talking openly about the emotional and mental aftershocks of loss, survivor’s guilt, fear of death and suicide in My Grief Is Not Like Yours, Boyd offers her readers comfort in knowing that in grief they are not alone, and, like her, they will find joy again.   

About the Author

Theo Boyd, whose given name is Thelizabeth after her two grandmothers, Thelma and Elizabeth, is a farmgirl at heart. For most of her adult life, she lived in Waxahachie, Texas, about 30 minutes south of Dallas, where she taught high school English, raised her daughter and was an active volunteer in various organizations, her community and her church. After 30 years, she moved back to her hometown of Whitney, Texas, to come to terms with the death of her mother in a tragic farming accident, followed three years later by her father’s suicide. She now devotes her time to writing and speaking about loss, grief and faith with the mission of helping others find comfort and hope.