After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges [Paperback]

Diane Cole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2001

Like When Bad Things Happen to Good People, this compassionate and enlightening book is for anyone who has experienced profound loss. Cole uses her own experiences as the starting points for an inspiring journey through grief and healing to the emergence of a new self.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A series of severe personal losses and crises prompted freelance writer Cole's examination of grief as a transforming experience. While a college senior, she discovered the lump on her lover's jaw that signaled his immediate, harsh bout with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy; within that year her mother's terminal cancer was diagnosed. Not long after her mother's death in 1975, Cole was held hostage by Muslim terrorists in her B'nai B'rith Washington, D.C., office; in the years that followed her marriage, she suffered through two lost pregnancies and a lengthy struggle with infertility. These events provide the framework for Cole's examination of the grieving process and the possibility it offers--or its imperative--that one acknowledge sorrow but also let go of negated dreams and dashed hopes to make room for "a new life." While some readers may object to the repetitive, detailed depiction of Cole's personal travails, most will find wisdom in her nonprescriptive distillation of the psychological literature on grieving and its rendering in literary works. One is inspired by her ultimate willingness to cast off the burdens of regret and sorrow to embrace new, unexpected joy. First serial to McCall's.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In her young adulthood, Cole was numbed by double trouble--her mother's death and her boyfriend's painful albeit successful struggle with cancer. Subsequently, her own life was threatened as a hostage. Following her marriage, she suffered miscarriages and had to face the psychological pain engendered by infertility. The combination of these sad events triggered her research into the effects of loss. This book combines autobiographical reflections, interviews, and brief excerpts from psychological literature. It offers much insight into the grief process, suggesting that a person changes rather than recovers, and that ultimately a griever must establish a new identity. The topical chapters are cohesive, but they stand more as independent units than an integrated book. Nonetheless, Cole speaks eloquently and poignantly to anyone who has suffered a loss.
- Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr. Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Winedale Publishing (March 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970152558
• ISBN-13: 978-0970152558
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,713,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped me to come to terms with pain and loss., June 17, 2010

By 

William C. Sibley "tools for language" (Westfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges (Paperback)

An open letter to the author - Dear Ms. Cole,

I am a 62 year old man, married with 2 adult children, women ages 35
and 30. I have struggled with depression and grief for about 50
years. Your book, After Great Pain, helped me come to terms with my
pain and losses.

My parents had to send my mentally handicapped sister, June, to an
institution in 1960, when she was 14 and I was 13. She had become
completely unmanageable. Our family collapsed and never fully
recovered. Father became hostile, Mother withdrawn and we 3 boys,
repelled by ugly memories, became emotionally distant as adults. We
had only rare contact with June. She was excluded from family
gatherings which remained uncomfortable for decades.

About 1980, I began to see her regularly. Fortunately for me, she had
little awareness of time passing so she readily forgave me for
neglecting her.

In the last few weeks, I understood that, in addition to depression, I
have been grieving for my lost family. I rejected the family long ago
because of violence and other ugliness, but unbeknown to me, kept
trying to find it in strangers. Your book helped me to become aware
of my real feelings, that I missed them and loved them.

June and Dad died in 2007, 3 weeks apart. June knew I loved her. Dad
never got my forgiveness, but I have forgiven both Mom and Dad for the
violence and their inability to protect us. My relationship with Mom
is very close now.

I feel much better for having read your book.

Sincerely yours,
Bill Sibley

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hope, September 28, 2009

By 

Terri Petersen "candlewow" (paradise) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges (Paperback)

It gives you a glimmer of hope, where before, there was none.

Hope in a book.

Enjoy