By Lindsey Jones*
Just last year after my second year of college, I lost my mother to stage four pancreatic cancer. There were so many initial thoughts that went through my mind regarding the situation, many of them being experiences I would never have with her or that she would never be able to see. I could no longer have Downton Abbey or Sherlock marathons with her over Cadbury Eggs and English Breakfast Tea. I no longer had my best friend. She would never hear about my internship in London, see me graduate from college, attend my wedding, or meet her grandchildren.
The year after my mother’s death, I struggled with finding my happiness again but eventually, I did. I realized that my mother is everywhere around me and lives within the memories of her that I possess. I also happened upon an amazing picture book called Alive Again that illustrates this exact idea. The story tells of a child questioning the cycle of life, reminding me of the stage of childhood when children finally start speaking and using words, asking questions and being inquisitive about everything that they encounter in day-to-day life. The questions present in Alive Again are concerning living things, asking, “If they die, do their words go with them?” The child, and us as readers, are quick to find out that they are always born again, as the title of the book suggests.
Alive Again opens the door to understanding loss in any form but especially death. When we lose people in our lives that we are close to, such as a parent or a friend, they are reborn again and live on through the memories we have of them and the impact that they had on our lives. This is a concept that presents itself to any age, young or old. Alive Again serves as a beautiful and fantastic reminder that those we lose are still very much alive in our hearts and in our minds; this wonderful book will be, too.
*Lindsey Jones is an intern at Tiny Owl.
- Read this review by Book Trust: A reassuring tale about the philosophical nature of language and being
- Read this blog: There is always hope
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