Cradled All the While is a beautifully crafted memoir in which the author recounts the story of her mother's death from cancer. In the midst of career and child-rearing, Corse becomes her mother's primary caregiver, but her story is a spiritual journey that will nurture the faith of people of many religious backgrounds. The themes encountered throughout the book parallel the issues dealt with in practical grieving resources; here, however, they are played out in the lives of a real family.
Cradled All the While: The Unexpected Gifts of a Mother's Death was begun in the year after my mother's death from colon cancer. I was 37 years old at the time, a mother of three young children, and a busy psychologist. The first encouragement to write about my experience came from fellow participants in a class called "Writing your spiritual autobiography." Whenever I talked or wrote about my recent experiences of caring for a dying parent, experiencing my own grief, and responding to my children's needs, others would say "Wow, that gives me goose-bumps!" So I credit the "goose-bump factor" with motivating me to write.
The book is about more than caring for a dying mother, however. It is about the ever-present struggle for connection and independence in family relationships. It is about the healing power of love. It is about new possibilities arising from the ashes of grief and loss.
I am currently the Director of the University City Office of the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia, the oldest relationship counseling and training center in the country. I have a busy practice working with individuals and couples.
One of the themes in the book is how an experience such as losing a loved one can lead to unanticipated growth. For me, learning to figure skate after my mother's death represents growth in many areas: physical, spiritual, mental and in my relationships with others. The chapters in "Cradled all the while" that focus on skating are of particular interest to adult skaters.
