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Writer and poet Goyer has composed a memoir of sudden, excruciating grief and the life journey that ensued. One morning, he awoke to find that his wife, Cheryl, was no longer breathing. Such an experience is extremely traumatic in the immediate sense, and the loss that it entails, Goyer believes, evokes incidents and emotions that pursue the grieving person throughout his/her life. Grief will be one’s companion, and tears may become an almost welcome expression of the emotions that are continually arising as one contemplates life without a loved one.
The author and his wife had enjoyed more than twenty years of close marital companionship. After her passing, he had what he calls a “roller coaster” of feelings that attended such “loose ends” as handling Cheryl’s clothing, talking to others about her, taking on the tasks of housekeeping, and even such small details as having to tell the bank to remove her name from their accounts. Goyer describes these anguished moments through a heartfelt narrative, poems, and sporadic journal entries.
Goyer, who spent four years in the U.S. Navy and is retired from a career with General Electric, imparts his story of loss—and the learning that can arise from it—openly with notable pangs of recollection that will move and educate his readers. His Christian viewpoint and his understandable frustrations and reluctance to let go of the past are made clear. Months after Cheryl’s death, he still had not touched her purse and resisted taking over the gardening work that she so enjoyed. What emerges from his poignant, painful remembrances of such intense sorrow is his acceptance of the need to continue plotting his own path. Goyer’s chronicle offers a sense of universal wisdom that can provide meaningful outreach to others finding themselves in a similar situation.