Ebook: Stumbling Stones: A Path through Grief, Love and Loss

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when the phone rang. I was idly wondering if I had the will to vacuum. The siren call of the phone offered a reprieve. It was my big brother calling to tell me that my twin brother, Angus, was dead. That's all he said, 'He's dead.'

We all know that, one day, we will have to walk the dark path of grief. There is no way to prepare. There are no neat answers or ways to deal with loss; we stumble as we go. It's hard and it hurts but, curiously, there are gifts and unexpected kindnesses to be found in the bleak places.

Stumbling Stones offers stories, consolations and understandings of the difficulties that are held within loss. Airdre's own passage through the wild landscape of grief, the people she met along the way and the tales she heard all offer ways to navigate the tricky path of sorrow and loss, and help shine a light into the darkness.

Airdre Grant, a New Zealander by birth, lives in northern New South Wales, Australia. There she works as an academic at Southern Cross University, where she completed a PhD on the relationship between spirituality and health. Her life has been instinctual rather than carefully planned, less a tale of remarkable success and more of a muddling through.

She can often be found sitting on her verandah above the township of Lismore, contemplating her next move. Since her daughters left home, she finds herself engaged in a subtle, ongoing power struggle with her large ginger cat, Gordon.