Julie Zarifeh shares her tragic story of the double whammy of her 27-year-old son Sam dying in a whitewater rafting accident just 16 days after her 60-year-old husband, Paul, died of pancreatic cancer. The loss of her beloved husband and son threw Julie and her surviving son and daughter into the depths of grief.
She describes how they dealt with this huge impact and how she has been embracing the notion of 'active grieving', practising what she preaches in her job as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. So far this has included a 450 km bike ride around Sri Lanka, raising money to supply disadvantaged Kiwi children with new bikes; trekking the 900 km Camino de Santiago across Northern Spain, which was made into a documentary (www.caminoskies.com); and running the New York marathon on behalf of the Mental Health Foundation.
This is an inspirational and ultimately uplifting account of learning to live with grief, with Julie's experience as a Clinical Psychologist an additional plus.