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One for Sorrow: A memoir of death and life is a new book from Canon Alan Hargrave, as he relates the story of the loss of his 21-year old son Tom to cancer, and how the family lived through the aftermath.
When Alan began writing the memoir, he believed it would be about his son’s illness and death. He soon realised, however, that he was recording his own painful journey through the ‘valley of the shadow’, as a father, and as someone responsible for ministering to others in similar situations. His core beliefs were challenged and his perspective on life changed.
The classic poem that informs the title of this beautifully written, soul-piercing book is shot through with a blend of yearning and hope, reflection and promise. So, too, is this memoir. As the author works painfully and honestly through the unexpected pain of the death of a child, the broken yet beautiful hope of the Christian tradition rises, tentatively, to meet grief head-on. This book represents Alan’s passion for us all to find the strength and weakness, the honesty and humility, to grow through adversity and, like our crucified God, rise up from pain and death to live and love and laugh again.
