A unique and highly personal look at the process of grieving. Almost ten years ago, Wendy Dean's eighteen-year-old daughter Rachael was killed in a tragic automobile accident. Although Dean had worked for more than twenty years as a mental health nurse counselling men and women who had suffered losses of every description she was unable to come to terms with her own grief. As days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into years, Dean found herself caught in a seemingly endless spiral of anger, frustration, guilt and overwhelming sadness. Her marriage, her teenage son, and her career all suffered. Traditional grief literature didn?t help, she either couldn?t relate, or felt pressured by its references to stages, phases, and time frames. It was after a good friend suggested journaling that Dean began to find some solace. In Journaling a Pathway Through Grief, Dean takes the remarkable step of making public her diary entries from the days and years following Rachael's death. It is Dean's hope that those reading this book will recognize some of their own experiences in her words, whether its an early need to look for signs, a backlash of guilt and emotions triggered by special days, or the feelings of hopelessness and despair that can often lead to suicidal thoughts. Now a grief counsellor for Bereaved Families of Ontario, Dean pairs her journal entries with a professional look at both her own progress through the grief journey and observations about the journey itself. For counsellors like herself, she includes a chapter on the value of journalling in teaching about grief. For those who have suffered a devasting loss, for those who work with the bereaved, Journaling a Pathway Through Grief is a searingly honest study and an important contribution to a difficult discussion.

Wendy Dean is the Executive Director of Bereaved Families of Ontario-Halton/Peel. Informed daily by her daughter Rachel’s life and untimely death, Dean is commited to educating individuals and communities about the lived realities of grief.

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