Carol C. Poduch  e Author

 
 
   

About the Book

Shared Moments, Finding the Spirit of Hope is a book that explores one family’s moments of healing and inspiration in the years following the loss of a child. The Poduch family experienced a peace imparting sense of 9-year-old Lauren’s presence after her death. Bereaved mother and author, Carol C. Poduch, charted a course to hope and healing while sharing the family’s experiences with others in storytelling fashion. Ultimately, she was encouraged to begin writing her stories down. They were published locally in Waterloo, Ontario and eventually picked up on a broader scale. It quickly became apparent that the bereaved, their supporters and also the non-bereaved felt uplifted while hearing tales of Lauren.

The book is comprised of a series of Carol’s stories, vignettes that when experienced collectively take the reader from the moment of shock when a beautiful child sustains an insurmountable head injury through many of the details that bereaved parents must face and ultimately to a place of peaceful resolution.

Carol’s conversational writing style draws the reader into her world in a manner that is guaranteed to generate tears, laughter, love and ultimately the integration of one of life’s most challenging yet compelling passages – the death of a child.

Shared Moments is a book that bereaved parents will not want to miss, yet the messages are universal. The experiences Carol shares in her book give the bereaved and non-bereaved alike reason to pause and reflect on the nature of life, love, loss and hope after loss.

Carol plans to devote a portion of the profits from book sales to a variety of charitable organizations.  Click here for more information.


 Read a sample story
 
 

On The Cover

Transformation by artist Sarina Wheeler was inspired by Carol's story The Butterfly Garden. 
The butterfly is the perfect metaphor for grief.  As a beautiful butterfly emerges from the cocoon, so too a new phase of existence emerges from profound loss.  And like the butterfly, that new existence can be one of great beauty. To view more of Sarina's work, please visit her website: www.sarinawheeler.com

Touched by Transformation? A fine art print or set of cards featuring the cover art  can be ordered here from Volumes Direct
 

The Tasks of Grief

Shared Moments, Finding the spirit of hope, was written after Carol had studied grief in an academic setting at King’s College, the University of Western Ontario. Carol felt it was important to investigate the theoretical underpinnings of her personal experiences. She then chose to loosely model the stories shared in her book after the work of Dr. William Worden. While Dr. Worden’s model, the tasks associated with mourning, provides the scaffolding for the stories, the interpretation of the tasks is based on Carol’s observations.

The Four tasks of mourning, as defined by Worden are:

-          To accept the reality of the loss

-          To work through the pain of grief

-          To adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing

-          To emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with living

Carol’s comments of her own passage through the tasks fill the pages of the book.

Acclaim for Shared Moments

This book offers insight into a personal journey that can normalize the grief experience of others. The sharing of stories both inspires and validates the experiences of grief travelers who are walking a similar path. Like William Worden’s theoretical model, Carol’s stories provide light posts along an otherwise dark and foggy path.                                                                         
 - Dena Moitoso, Bereavement Counselor

Shared Moments, is a book that will be experienced in many ways. Each story is a gem. And, while individual stories, in isolation, may not strike a reader as being remarkable, they become remarkable as the collection unfolds. They invite us to pause and reflect on the nature of life, of loss and of hope after loss.                                                                                                                                   
- Rhona Hanning, Ph.D., RD

Each story connected to an emotion I was experiencing while actively grieving the loss of my parents. Carol’s stories served as an affirmation that there is more than just this life. They helped to connect me to my deceased parents and moreover, they connected our family to one another as we faced our losses.                                                                                                 
- Nimira Husein 

Life brings many challenges our way. Whether we grieve for a lost loved one, a lost job, a lost relationship or merely the loss of life as we had planned it, Carol’s remarkable journey reminds us that hope and healing are never out of reach.
- Patricia Walsh