This Angel On My Chest

Number one: I seem to be drawn to books that are written about one of two themes, terrorists or people dying too soon.  I have lost four people since Christmas.  Two were in there 80's and two were in there 50's. One can say the two who were in their eighties lived a long life and that would be true.  But losing them does not make the pain any easier to bear. But the two  in their 50's was even harder to bear.  One was so sudden it is still hard to believe.  She went to lie down for a few minutes.  When she didn't return her kids went to check in on her and found her.

I went to see the parents of this woman and the pain in her father's eyes was overwhelming. Her Mom would not stop moving the furniture back into place.

I also went to see the husband of the 80 year old woman.  I just sat there holding his hand for the longest time.  What else could I do? There really wasn't anything I could say.

The book This Angel on My Chest is about people who lost a spouse at a young age.  Honestly I don;t know why I picked up this book.  I guess I was drawn to the title.  It really is not my type of book.  First of all it is short stories.  I am not crazy about this genre.  I like to get attached to the characters and in short stories I don;t feel like there is enough time to do that. Secondly it is all about death.  Now usually I would have put this book away but something just made me read it.  I guess it was because I could identify how these people who were left behind felt.

It really ended up being  an interesting read although I can't say I am happy to have read it.  In case you are wondering, I did finish it.