Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind [Hardcover]

Amy Hollingsworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

Not all gifts are tangible.

After suffering the loss of her father while writing her bestselling debut book, Amy Hollingsworth began to search for the meaning behind his dying moments. What she found was a simple truth at the heart of overcoming the deepest grief: the dying leave gifts. With deeply moving stories of how others discovered the gifts their loved ones left behind, this book will gently encourage you to anticipate and uncover your own.

Weaving together the warm intimacy of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie and the straightforward honesty of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Amy Hollingsworth adds her hopeful voice to the literature of life and the life beyond. The result is a collection of stories that gives the reader myriad ways to identify their own pain and healing and is an intriguing journey for any and all readers fascinated by this brief overlap of heaven and earth.

From the bestselling author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Few events in life leave us more vulnerable and potentially open to God's gifts than the death of a loved one. The death of Hollingsworth's father while she was writing her first book, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, gave her the opportunity and desire to discover what legacies the dying leave behind. While searching for the meaning of her father's final moments, Hollingsworth talked to or read about others who had experienced gifts in the midst of loss, and movingly recounts their stories. While some of the anecdotes are familiar, such as C.S. Lewis's loss of his wife, Joy, many of the most touching are of ordinary people whose gifts are occasionally physical—e.g., a locket that had not yet been given—but more often are ones of relationship. Hollingsworth concludes with the powerful story of her father's death and her discovery that his last moments offered her much needed healing of their difficult relationship. Those who question whether God orchestrates all that happens in our lives will struggle with that implied theology here, but those who find comfort in that perspective will experience Hollingsworth as a warm and gracious companion for the grieving process. (Apr. 29)
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About the Author

Amy Hollingsworth is the author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor, based on her nine-year friendship with television's Fred Rogers. She has a master's degree in counseling psychology and a bachelor's degree in English and is an adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she lives with her husband Jeff and their children, Jonathan and Emily. She has written for various magazines, including ParentLife, and was a writer for eight years for The 700 Club television program. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; First Printing edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849919207
• ISBN-13: 978-0849919206
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,919,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amy Hollingsworth is the author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor (2005), based on her nine-year friendship with television's Fred Rogers; Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (2008); and the just-released Holy Curiosity: Cultivating the Creative Spirit in Everyday Life (2011). She taught as an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, Jeff, and their children, Jonathan and Emily. She has written for various magazines, including ParentLife, and was a writer for eight years for a national television program. She was named one of USA Today entertainment blog Pop Candy's Top 100 People of 2010 for her influence on pop culture and featured in the documentary by MTV News VP/producer Benjamin Wagner titled "Mister Rogers & Me."


SEE Amy Hollingsworth's television interview about HOLY CURIOSITY on CBN NEWS:

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/September/Author-How-to-Tap-into-Your-Creative-Gifts/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gifts of Passage, July 24, 2008

By 

Ronald D. Willard (Deep in the heart of Texas), Boerne, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (Hardcover)

Ronald D. Willard CMSgt USAF, Ret.
130 Kenwood Avenue
Boerne, Texas 78006-2716
830-249-9855
[e-mail]


24 July 2008

Subject: Book Review: Gifts of Passage
by
Amy Hollingsworth


"How a life ends is important, even if for just a moment the person feels loved and cared for, connected." This is a quote from chapter 8, The Last Thing, page 58 in Amy Hollingsworth, priceless, book--- The Gifts of Passage.

The above quote, in my opinion, is the central theme of The Gifts of Passage.

I first learned of The Gifts of Passage when I completed reading Ms. Hollingsworth book The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers. Amy's web page announced her second book; The Gifts of Passage was available in book stores.

Almost from the beginning of reading The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers I discovered I really enjoyed Amy's style of writing; It made me feel comfortable and relaxed and eager to continue reading (and at 73 years of age, feeling comfortable and relaxed is a priority of mine). Having been "hooked" on Ms. Hollingsworth's writing style, I couldn't wait to purchase her latest book The Gifts of Passage.

At the very top of page 4 in The Gifts of Passage Amy writes: "That was the best way I knew how to describe it; my father has given me a gift of passage, a gift that marked his passage. Now I had something to call it, even if I didn't yet know what it meant."

Immediately following that last sentence above, under the sub title of Two Legends Amy writes of two legends, one from the book Where The Red Fern Grows and the other from the Chinese concerning an invisible red tread (page 5).

Just five pages into the book and she (Amy) writes: "The Chinese believe that an invisible red thread binds those who are destined to be together."

Almost instantly after reading that sentence (above), it reminded me of the concluding two chapters of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers. DIFFICULT TIMES is the title of chapter 8. In that chapter Amy writes of The Nature Of Loss, The Gift of Allowing Others To Grieve, In Loss An Overshadowing Presence, and Love: Stronger Than Anything. If you read The Gifts of Passage you will discover Amy uses similar words and phrases, as those above,
Chapter 9 is titled; HEADING TOWARD HEAVEN. It is in that last chapter (9) that Amy introduces us to her beloved father.

To me, that's when I discovered where the invisible red thread, which Amy wrote about on page 5 of The Gifts of Passage it started its binding process. As Ms. Hollingsworth continued to write The Gifts of Passage, like a highly trained and experience brain surgeon, she skillfully and carefully stitched her stories together with that invisible red thread.

I read The Gifts of Passage twice. Each time I read that book, I was so thankful I first read Amy's book The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers. To me, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers is a prologue to The Gifts of Passage. Many years ago I read in one of my wife's cooking magazines that at the dinner table if one asks for the pepper, the proper thing to do is to pass the salt too. The salt and pepper are like a marriage, you can't have one without the other. That's the way I feel about The Gifts of Passage; to gain the maximum value from that book, one needs to read The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers --- first.

To prove how strongly I feel about this matching of the two books, I sent my three adult daughters, a member of my church who recently experienced the death of his beautiful wife, and a member of my adult Bible Sunday school class --- I gave all of them both of Amy's books. And I strongly encouraged all of them to read The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers first if they wanted to gain the greatest understanding and value from The Gifts of Passage.

Amy Hollingsworth writes with great love, sensitivity, passion, compassion, care, empathy, and understanding. Amy was not ashamed to admit she shed tears as she wrote of some of the experiences she encountered while writing The Gifts of Passage.

I give The Gifts of Passage a 5 star rating --- and I give Amy Hollingsworth my personal Thank You --- young lady!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent read if you are struggling with loss of loved one, January 18, 2010

By 

V. Woodworth "infinity" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (Paperback)

A well written account by Amy Hollingsworth. She fills in the answers to so many questions when dealing with loss of a loved one. This book helped me move toward acceptance and go on in peace with my life.

5.0 out of 5 stars Gifts of Passage a real gift to the grieving, November 23, 2008

By 

Valerie (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gifts of Passage: What the Dying Tell Us with the Gifts They Leave Behind (Hardcover)

Gifts of Passage is a healing instrument in written form for anyone who has grieved the loss of a loved one. Memories flooded me as I read and things that did not seem to make sense before became clear.