Catch Me When I Fall: Poems of Mother Loss and Healing
Donna Stoneham
(Author)
Description
Losing your mother is a transformational event at any age, and yet the number of books on the subject of adult children grieving a mother's death is meager. In this moving collection of poems and letters, Donna Stoneham chronicles the healing power of love between an adult daughter and her elderly mother--across the boundaries of this world and the next, and over the course of four years--and how that connection teaches her to love more deeply, to fully forgive, and to grow into her authentic self. An embracing solace for anyone recovering from the loss of a loved one, Catch Me When I Fall reveals how our grief journeys can be a powerful transformative force and offers readers a courageous, healing path to the other side of sorrow's dark passage. Through the conversations between mother and daughter that take place in these lyrical pieces, readers are provided with the opportunity to explore a beautiful notion: as long as we keep our hearts open to the mystery and transformational power of transcendent, eternal love, it will always be possible to heal and continue our most pivotal relationships--even after death.Product Details
Price
$17.95
$16.69
Publisher
She Writes Press
Publish Date
May 09, 2023
Pages
288
Dimensions
0.0 X 0.0 X 0.0 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781647424282
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Donna Stoneham is an executive coach, transformational leadership expert, speaker, lifelong poet, former hospice chaplain, and spiritual seeker who was born and raised in the Texas panhandle. She is also the author of The Thriver's Edge: Seven Keys to Transform the Way You Live, Love, and Lead. When Donna's not writing, coaching, traveling, or volunteering, she loves to hike, ski, sail, kayak, and do anything else that involves communing with spirit and nature. She, her wife, and their rescue dogs live in Point Richmond, California.
Reviews
"Poet and prophet, traveler in the realms between the worlds--the here and the greater there--Donna Stoneham is our guide to the landscapes and the inscapes of grief, loss, and the quickening of the human heart. Through this potent telling, she mentors and helps us renew and recover the connection with the love and spirit that never dies."
--Jean Houston, PhD, co-founder of the Human Potential Movement and best-selling author of The Possible Human, The Search for the Beloved, and A Passion for the Possible "Whether or not you are religious, spiritual, or believe in life after death, Donna Stoneham's beautiful poems about loss and her letters to her dead mother will reach into your own grieving heart and guide you towards healing. Although Catch Me When I Fall is Donna's personal story, anyone who's had and lost a mother will relate to the connection and pain and will be uplifted--because Donna shows us that although death may end a physical life, it does not end a relationship."
--Virginia A. Simpson, PhD, Bereavement Care Specialist, and award-winning author of The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life "Navigating grief is both an individual and collective experience, fraught with the vagaries of family history and unique personal struggles. This universal theme is turned over and over again in Donna's effective and honest writing. It is an intimate recollection and fearless accounting of the uncharted paths of grief, but it is also a metamorphosis, as she, and I believe her mother, discover the tenuous connection they thought they had with each other was not tenuous at all, but one of strongly wrought love."
--Cindy Eastman, author of Flip-Flops After 50: And Other Thoughts On Aging I Remembered To Write Down "One suggestion, given my own tears, before you even crack open Stoneham's collection of poems--maybe don't start reading in a public space. I say that because even though we have our whole lives to prepare for the moment we become motherless, are we ever really prepared for, as Stoneham describes, 'the slack tide' of our ragged hearts? But persevere, and you will begin to understand what we call the restorative power of grief. How it moves with you, guides you, and then loosens its grip."
--Nina Gaby, editor of Dumped: Women's Stories of Women Unfriending Women "This very personal story of mother-daughter love captures the longing that never leaves us. The umbilical cord of mother-daughter love is twisted by conflicting values and individuation, but unwinds again at the end of life, when mind gives way, and reason steps aside to let love and longing be fulfilled. Written as a dialogue that extends even beyond death, Stoneham's masterful weave of prose and poetry is a primer on moving through sadness toward understanding and peace."
--Mary E. Plouffe, author of I Know It in My Heart: Walking through Grief with a Child "I began reading Donna Stoneham's Catch Me When I Fall shortly before the one-year anniversary of my beloved mother's death. As I walked beside Donna through her own grief journey, I rode the too-familiar waves of sadness and overwhelm, of love and transcendence. With her powerful poetry and prose, Donna reminded me to look to the Universe for signs from my mom, to trust in the ultimate plan, and to honor our lost loved ones by spreading joy and positivity. I will forever be grateful for the healing power of this book."
--Katrina Anne Willis, author of Parting Gifts "The primal wound of losing a mother is something most of us will be asked to endure in our lifetimes. Donna Stoneham has given us the gift of letting us move with her over the rough
ground of her own profound loss. Her poetry, poignant letters to, and communications from her mother invite us to descend into the darkness, let our hearts break wide open to love and walk the hard and holy path of grief and loss as a portal to our own becoming."
--Suzanne Anderson, author of You Make Your Path by Walking: A Transformational Field Guide Through Trauma and Loss and co-author of The Way of the Mysterial Woman: Upgrading How You Live, Love and Lead "Amid the severance of earthly ties, walk with Donna Stoneham as she tenderly stitches and dresses the wound. This is difficult heart work which we will all have to do; here is a gracious reminder we do not have to do it alone."
--Lt. Brian Bort, chaplain in the US Navy and author of The Strange Fish and Gigantic Brittle
--Jean Houston, PhD, co-founder of the Human Potential Movement and best-selling author of The Possible Human, The Search for the Beloved, and A Passion for the Possible "Whether or not you are religious, spiritual, or believe in life after death, Donna Stoneham's beautiful poems about loss and her letters to her dead mother will reach into your own grieving heart and guide you towards healing. Although Catch Me When I Fall is Donna's personal story, anyone who's had and lost a mother will relate to the connection and pain and will be uplifted--because Donna shows us that although death may end a physical life, it does not end a relationship."
--Virginia A. Simpson, PhD, Bereavement Care Specialist, and award-winning author of The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life "Navigating grief is both an individual and collective experience, fraught with the vagaries of family history and unique personal struggles. This universal theme is turned over and over again in Donna's effective and honest writing. It is an intimate recollection and fearless accounting of the uncharted paths of grief, but it is also a metamorphosis, as she, and I believe her mother, discover the tenuous connection they thought they had with each other was not tenuous at all, but one of strongly wrought love."
--Cindy Eastman, author of Flip-Flops After 50: And Other Thoughts On Aging I Remembered To Write Down "One suggestion, given my own tears, before you even crack open Stoneham's collection of poems--maybe don't start reading in a public space. I say that because even though we have our whole lives to prepare for the moment we become motherless, are we ever really prepared for, as Stoneham describes, 'the slack tide' of our ragged hearts? But persevere, and you will begin to understand what we call the restorative power of grief. How it moves with you, guides you, and then loosens its grip."
--Nina Gaby, editor of Dumped: Women's Stories of Women Unfriending Women "This very personal story of mother-daughter love captures the longing that never leaves us. The umbilical cord of mother-daughter love is twisted by conflicting values and individuation, but unwinds again at the end of life, when mind gives way, and reason steps aside to let love and longing be fulfilled. Written as a dialogue that extends even beyond death, Stoneham's masterful weave of prose and poetry is a primer on moving through sadness toward understanding and peace."
--Mary E. Plouffe, author of I Know It in My Heart: Walking through Grief with a Child "I began reading Donna Stoneham's Catch Me When I Fall shortly before the one-year anniversary of my beloved mother's death. As I walked beside Donna through her own grief journey, I rode the too-familiar waves of sadness and overwhelm, of love and transcendence. With her powerful poetry and prose, Donna reminded me to look to the Universe for signs from my mom, to trust in the ultimate plan, and to honor our lost loved ones by spreading joy and positivity. I will forever be grateful for the healing power of this book."
--Katrina Anne Willis, author of Parting Gifts "The primal wound of losing a mother is something most of us will be asked to endure in our lifetimes. Donna Stoneham has given us the gift of letting us move with her over the rough
ground of her own profound loss. Her poetry, poignant letters to, and communications from her mother invite us to descend into the darkness, let our hearts break wide open to love and walk the hard and holy path of grief and loss as a portal to our own becoming."
--Suzanne Anderson, author of You Make Your Path by Walking: A Transformational Field Guide Through Trauma and Loss and co-author of The Way of the Mysterial Woman: Upgrading How You Live, Love and Lead "Amid the severance of earthly ties, walk with Donna Stoneham as she tenderly stitches and dresses the wound. This is difficult heart work which we will all have to do; here is a gracious reminder we do not have to do it alone."
--Lt. Brian Bort, chaplain in the US Navy and author of The Strange Fish and Gigantic Brittle
