Letters to Kate: Life After LifeUniversity of Iowa Press, 2006 - 180 pages Sorrow is “not a state but a process” that needs “not a map but a history. . . . There is something new to be chronicled every day,” writes C. S. Lewis in A Grief Observed. When Carl Klaus's wife of thirty-five years died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage, right before Thanksgiving in 2002, he took the only road toward recovery that made sense to him: he started writing letters to her, producing a unique history of grief, solace, and love. His vivid and thoughtful letters will resonate with everyone whose loss confronts them with emotional, psychological, and philosophical questions for which there are no easy answers.During his first year without Kate, Carl writes himself into the life that comes after the life he loved. From days of grief in the darkness of a midwestern winter, to springtime, with a return to life in the garden and a memorial service for Kate on a sunny afternoon, to fall, with a pilgrimage to their favorite vacation spot in Hawaii, Carl documents his year-long experience of remembering, meditating, and evolving a new life. Individually his letters provide the insights of a master diarist; collectively, they have the arc of a master essayist. Recording the full range of mourning from intense shock to moments of exceptional affirmation, Klaus's stories and reflections on loss bear witness to universal truths about the first and most significant year of mourning. |
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16 Dear Kate 23 Dear 24 Dear afternoon aloha shirt arugula asked beef tenderloins candles Carol course death DECEMBER died dining room dinner dream E. B. White especially everything eyes feel felt flowers FRANKS KLAUS FRIDAY friends garden Gene given going gone grief Hanalei Hanalei Bay hand Hannah Hawaii hear help wondering imagine Iowa City Kalalau Trail Kauai keep kitchen last night letters living room looked lunch Martha memorial service mind minute MONDAY months movie Na Pali coast never park past perennial bed pinot noir planted problem Puck realize remember reminded SATURDAY seemed smile someone sometimes sooner spätlese stop strange suddenly SUNDAY sure surprise talk tears tell terrace thanks there's things thought THURSDAY told took tree Trudy TUESDAY turned walk WEDNESDAY week wine words writing yesterday