Langley Hospice Society

Hey everyone, Ria here👋🏽 The #adultreads book of the week is “White Hot Grief Parade: A Memoir” written by Alexandra Silber. I’m a sucker for a good memoir and I really enjoyed this book because the author was able to tell her story of her dad’s long-time battle with illness and the way his eventual death changed her life so completely. This story also talks a lot about the effect of friendship as a balm to the grieving heart and the importance of relationship during such a difficult time in life. I appreciated how the author was able to talk about her grief in an authentic way but also with a great sense of humour and wit. This is the first grief memoir written by a young adult’s perspective that I have read and it was an illuminating read.

“Alexandra “Al” Silber seems to have everything: brilliance, beauty, and talent in spades. But when her beloved father dies after a decade-long battle with cancer when she is just a teenager, it feels like the end of everything. Lost in grief, Al and her mother hardly know where to begin with the rest of their lives. Into this grieving house burst Al’s three friends from theatre camp, determined to help out as only drama students know how—and they’re moving in for the duration. Over the course of that winter, the now five-strong household will do battle with everything Death can throw at them—meddling relatives, merciless bureaucracy, soul-sapping sadness, the endless Tupperware. They will learn (almost) everything about love and will eventually return to the world, altered in different ways by their time in a home by a river. Told with raw passion, candor and wit, White Hot Grief Parade is an ode to the restorative power of family and friendship—and the unbreakable bond, even in death, between father and daughter.”

“…that’s how it is with pain: it is like hibernation, a chrysalis of sorts forms around us while we heal. Or transform. Or both. That is not shameful, not weak. It is necessary.”