Natalie Taylor

It’s a good thing I’ve gotten over my “no books that make me cry” roadblock, or I would never have made it past page five of this book. Natalie Taylor is visiting her sister when she gets word that her husband of only 18 months has been critically injured. Josh Taylor is declared dead on Father’s Day in 2007 – four months before the birth of their child. The heartbreak starts right from page one.

Not only is the book written in a conversational, easy-to-read style, but there are bits of humor thrown in. Of course it’s possible that not everything I found humorous was meant to be funny, but you can blame my weird sense of humor for that. Such as when Natalie (a high school English teacher) wrote, “When I was in college, we read this Emily Dickinson poem. I have no idea what it was called or what it was about, but then again I never really know what any Emily Dickinson poem is about.” As someone who rarely gets deep, hidden messages in poetry and literature, I found it amusing that an English teacher admitted that she didn’t “get” Emily Dickinson.

Natalie is just like most new moms: tired and overwhelmed. So she invents a Fairy Mom Godmother. “My fairy godmother would wear her hair in a banana clip with strands sticking out everywhere. She would dress in an oversized T-shirt covered in spit-up stains, faded black stretch pants, worn-out running shoes, and one ankle sock and one tube sock. She would be the fairy godmother for new moms.” Motherhood is a reminder that life goes on and experiencing one tragedy doesn’t mean that everything else in her life gets easier.

But there is more to this book than tragedy. It’s about finding reasons to smile and be grateful, family and friends, and motherhood. It’s also about growing up. When her husband died, Natalie was twenty-four, a college graduate, a teacher, and a mom-to-be. But, at twenty-four, she was still very young. In her journaling of the following year, we see her maturing and changing her attitude toward her in-laws, her students, and even complete strangers.… (altro)

I really enjoyed this book. It was heartbreaking and honest, with a bit of humor thrown in once in a while. I have never really suffered grief of a death, but I have had a lot of traumatic things happen so I still do identify with her feelings. My only complaint is that she uses SO MANY names. I couldn't keep track and I kept trying to back and figure out what family member or friend each person was, but then I had to just give up and go along with it and not try to figure out who everyone was. I'm pretty sure Chris and Mathews were the same person, but I can't say for sure.. I wish she had just been more consistent with the names and not felt the need to name every single person she knew.

Also, I won this book from first reads, so I guess it was a special copy, but I was also shocked by the number of typos, as someone else pointed out. That's not the fault of the book or even the author, though.… (altro)

I didn't think I could ever understand the pain of losing a spouse, but I had a good glimpse of this darkness through this book. Natalie Taylor wrote with great honesty and sincerity. At times I felt like slapping her for being selfish and judgemental, but mostly I just wanted to reach in and give her a great big hug for her enormous loss and applaud her courage and strength in living with this loss. The book is very real and I especially l loved reading about her work as an English teacher as she made references to several books and the passages in them which she felt spoke to her about her situation.

Death of a spouse is something I greatly fear and dare not think about, but this book was an eye opener, and helped me not to be afraid to think about it.… (altro)