A Seed of Hope for a Journey Through Grief {book review}

Dr. Lynn Smith generously shares her honest journey throughout the pages of her touching new memoir, A Seed of Hope for a Journey Through Grief. A poignant testament wherein she vulnerably wades through raw grief, Lynn poetically sorts death and loss through the filter of healing hope and deep faith.

An intimate gift to readers who’ve lost loved ones, her prose is warm and familiar, as though spoken in person over coffee. A copy fell providentially into my hands at just the appointed time…

In the midst of an especially crazy week here at the White house, I received word that my great aunt had quickly and peacefully passed away. The matriarchal epicenter of my mom’s extended family, she was a bonus mother/grandmother to many offshoots of our colorful family tree.

Nearly every Sunday morning of my youth was spent either at her house (playing on her colossal garden swing, some big endeavor happening in the kitchen, Packers on the television in the background) or accompanying her to breakfast (original pancake house, always), and I can’t help but feel as though a fraction of my childhood has died along with her. Blindsided by the first passing on that side in thirty years, I was grateful for the brief visit we shared while in Oregon this past October.

Lynn’s book helped prepare me for such a loss, coached me to give liberty to my grief and to drink the full cup.

I am my mother’s daughter, my mother is me

I am my daughters’ mother, my daughters are me

I am my granddaughters’ grandmother, my granddaughters are me

We are one

Forever bonded together through generational blood

Forever linked by the past, present, and future.

-Dr. Lynn Smith