Customer Reviews

Angel Catcher: A Journal of Loss and Remembrance

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I first purchased this book at the request of my grief counselor, after the sudden death of my Brother, D.J.
Since then, I have purchsed 4 additional copies as gifts for friends and relative who have suffered the loss of a loved one.
I found it very helpful. The pages start you off with questions or statements that allow your feelings to flow. Some feelings that even if you are a "writer" you would not think of or even may feel uncomfortable about bringing up yourself like anger.
I find that most people will only talk or write about the good things about the person they've lost which of course is good and natural but "Angel Catcher" alows you to write about all feelings and situations. I find that it allowed (and guided) me to express all of my feelings and in return I felt peaceful and had a better understanding of my own feelings.
As stated I purchased several as gifts. In stead of sending flowers, I gave this book. I also found it much easier to order it from Amazon.com, have it gift wrapped and sent with a personal note from me - especially when it was being given to someone out of town. I must say that instead of the usual "Thank you" note, I have received very personal cards of gratitude stating that it has helped others gather their thoughts.
I thank the Authors Kathy and Amy Eldon for using their personal loss to help others deal with theirs.

It's been almost six months since my dad died, and I feel like everyone has moved on except me. His death has really taken it's toll on me, I cry at the drop of a hat these days, I find myself struggling to make it through the day,and I feel a depression that I just can't shake. I feel alone in my grief, and that is compounded by the people around me telling me that I should "be over it" by now. I feel that I haven't even touched my pain yet. I saw this book at the bookstore and couldn't put it down. I read the introduction and started crying right there in the bookstore. The book explained in the Introduction what I was feeling but couldn't put into words. It is helping me cope with the death of the man I thought was immortal. I bought copies for everyone in my family.

My mother was killed in an auto/pedestrian accident about four months ago. I stumbled onto this book about two weeks after her death. It truly is a gift. I carry it everywhere. What a wonderful journal -- I love how you can jump from section to section as your emotions change. The questions that the journal prompts you to answer are incredible--things you would never think of but WANT to remember about the person. It is very HARD to journal the feelings, but feels good after you do. This book is a priceless treasure -- I refer back to what I have written on previous dates. I cry. I laugh. I miss my Mom so much it hurts terribly -- but am glad that I will have a memorialization of her. There is a place for pictures and an envelope in the back for special mementos. I only wish I had this book five years ago when my father died.

A dear friend gave me this book after the sudden death of my beloved husband. For a few weeks, I couldn't even open it. Once I did though I found an invaluable way to help me remember Mike and to put into words all of those little things that were so much a part of our relationship. I have recommended it to my grief support group and will cherish the memories it has helped me capture.

My mother died from pancreatic cancer a year ago. We knew that it was inevitable. I found this book while I was looking for literature on how to deal with a terminally ill loved one. When I opened it up and started to read it, I cried. I had not yet lost my mother but as I read I was able to face what was coming - knowing that I had been able to share in her life and that our relationship was special.

I didn't buy the book that day. I came back to it many times, especially during the rough times. After a hard day I was able to go to the book store and flip through its pages and remember all the wonderful times. The day after my mother passed away I bought the book and have written in it everyday since. My memories are alive within it. It has helped me through the times when I couldn't tell anyone else how I felt.

This book allows you to put your feelings into words. It prompts you to consider things about your loss that you may have never explored on your own. It is wonderful.

A dear friend bought me this book within days of me losing my husband to cancer. We all have different ways of dealing with death, and as a young widow of 33, this book was an important piece in the process of helping me confront my grief.

I would leaf through the book and randomly select a page that matched the way I was feeling on that particular day. I'd pick up a train of thought, a memory, an emotion; and I'd begin to write, and write, and write, until I felt I'd expressed as much as I could, until I'd released tiny pieces of guilt, anger, despair, loneliness. Angel Catcher became a positive vehicle for catharsis; a record of my transition from searing grief and sadness to a place of healing and great peace.

I have since bought this book for friends who have suffered their own losses. For me, it was a compassionate and constructive channel for dealing with bereavement, and I am very grateful for the comfort it brought me.

May the book continue to bring light and hope to others in need.

A few weeks after my mom died, I ordered this book. I reviewed it in the book store and decided it was a fit for my loss and mourning process.

It has been a great source of comfort and relief for me. When I write in the journal, the words just flow and the pages fill; sometimes I continue writing on subsequent pages. Not all of the headings/topics fit the subject or reflection I am writing, but I find a fitting topic and the words flow.

Since her death, this journal has helped me through the entire year to express my inner feelings. At first I would cry a little after competing a segment. Now, it's a comfort and like a friend to go to--a solace away--hidden garden away from the world who doesn't have time or the empathy to hear my inner thoughts (I wouldn't share these thoughts or reflcetions with just anyone). They are private reflections and thougts for the book, my mom, and myself. The results: I am free to live, love, and be myself again.

If I had the time, I could sit and write in this book for hours. I am a believer in journaling and I have written on a professioanl basis.

One of my friends gave me this journal after the death of my father in 1998. It has helped me "cleanse my soul" of the grief and heartache and pain of losing someone who your world revolves around. It has helped me so much so, that I have purchased large quantities of these journals to give to people as my own personal ministry to them. Somehow the "giving" of these journals makes my father's death a little easier to live with - in fact almost 6 years later - it still does. There are days I just go back to read the things I wrote and am conforted by my progress in healing and hope others I have given them to along the way are as well.

The greatest thing about this journal are the open ended questions and statements for you to fill in with whatever your feeling and thoughts are right then. And it leaves enough room for you to come back later and write more - it gives you a look over time of how you WERE feeling versus how you ARE feeling. The REALNESS of this journal is what draws me to it. Personally though, I hope you never need it.

I use many journal books depending on what I want to write about on a particular day.
I use the blank pages in this book to write special memories as I remember them; things I don't want to forget.
I use Write From Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal, which is faith based to give me spiritual comfort. In this journal I write about my feelings and how I am coping and healing as I learn to deal with my loss. I am finding comfort.
I recommend both books because they are different and healing.
I use a regular journal to write about my children.

I came across this book shortly after my Dad died, also of pancreatic cancer in September of 1998. I haven't written in it everyday, but there are days when I write alot in it! It's been almost two years since his death, and when I am having a really hard day, I like to pick it up and read where I was shortly after his death! It reminds me of how far I have come, although, I realize that I still have a very long way to go. Also, I plan to pass this book onto my children someday, so after I die, they will know just what my feelings and emotions were following their Grandfather's death. I am buying a book for a friend who is going through the death of her father now, and is having a really rough time. It is a Godsend to me!