An Invitation from the Author, Mark Seiden

I invite you to share this Farewell Album for My Parents. In it you may find sustenance for your own hours of loss, when your parents or loved ones move on. I believe that years of grieving and sadness may be sweetened if we allow ourselves to process death and loss creatively.

You never know what to expect when people you love move on, but you’ve got to cope with it, whatever it is. A gutsy commitment and a love that just won’t quit is what end-of-life care giving must ultimately come down to for all of us; and caregivers must learn to process unexpected experiences and their own powerful reactions by using any and all available creative resources. This book is comprised of journal entries, stories, poems, photographs, drawings, and song lyrics in which I confronted, and gradually transcended, the raw emotions I experienced during my parents’ dying time.

Creating this family Farewell Album has been a wonderfully therapeutic ritual of reconciliation for me. It has been my way of grieving and letting go. My experiences, as a caregiver and in the grieving process, might just be helpful to you when you find yourself coping with the loss of parents. I do know this: writing about the experiences as they occur, then balancing those writings with old photographs and other memorabilia is one way of maintaining and advancing a family’s history, its place in the book of life. Ultimately, there’s even something quite sacred about it: “Honor thy Father and Mother.”

Without further ado, and with genuine hopes that this salute to my parents will spark creative possibilities for others in their times of loss and grief, click the link here and begin to experience some the audio, text, and visual style of  A Farewell Album for My Parents.

Reviews

Howard Zinn, activist/author of A People's History of the United States:

"Very moving -- heartwarming!  I loved this book. Lots of people will love this book."

Caroline Wellberry, M.D.  Georgetown Univesity Medical School; American Family Physician (Journal): 

"A straight-from-the-heart romp through hymns, memories, and poetry in which Mark Seiden commemorates the final days and months of first his father's, then his mother's death.... Each page is a hospital room brightened with drawings of flowers or song.  This is a scrapbook of touching moments and moments of touching, celebrating loss through rebirth.  We learn that Mark Seiden's parents were not alone; and neither are we."

Click the Reviews link for more critical response.

Click LISTEN, HERE selections from the playlist to hear and view text and visuals. Try "Rockin' Little Noah" and "Mommy without (Much) Memory" for starters...