I read the book in a single day…quite a feat when you realize that I have four preschoolers and never get to read more than a few paragraphs, much less a whole book.
But this book is one of the few that must be read entirely. You must know the end. You have to see where the journey leads. It cannot be read in fits and starts. This journey is hard and long and God-filled. It will leave you sobbing for breath and will steal your breath away at the beauty of all that God is and how he stands guard over the brokenhearted.
The book is And Life Comes Back by Tricia Lott Williford.
It is the story of the sudden death of her young, healthy husband. It is the tale of her entrance into widowhood at age 31 and the journey she makes, with her two young sons, through the valley and towards what lies beyond it.
For the sake of full disclosure, you will not get through these pages without tears. Even if you are not, right now, in deep grief, you will mourn with her. Married readers will face their own fears as you sit beside her while her husband of ten years dies and then as she tries to find a new life without him. Parents will weep along with her as she must recount her husband’s last moments to his two young sons and learn to parent all alone.
Williford’s words are deep and raw. They call the reader to walk with her, to observe her grief, and to be better prepared for the moment when each of us must also start down a similar path. She does not offer answers or platitudes. She does not offer cliches and not all of what she has to say will sit easy with you. But they are true. And they are real.
And for someone who is walking a road of deep grief, Tricia Lott Williford’s words may be just the ones to offer a life preserver. Because even as we walk the road of her loss, she does not wallow there. In every page, there is hope. In each chapter, there is God, showing up, giving generously, holding her family together when all darkness seems to be swallowing them up.
And Life Comes Back is not an easy read. It is deeply painful and full of grief. But it is whole and offers the promise of healing, healing that comes in part right now and healing that will only be complete on the other side of death’s strange door. It is hard to read, but it is well worth the time to walk with Tricia on her journey of grief.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
