WHEN YOU LOSE SOMEONE YOU LOVE
is an incredible gift of comfort that you can give yourself or someone you care about who has lost a loved one. Everyone who has lost a loved one—whether recently or years ago—will connect with the expressive sentiments and beautifully simple illustrations from the personal grief journal of award-winning artist/author Joanne Fink. Journaled as a way of dealing with her own unimaginable loss, this book will help bring healing without sugarcoating the challenges of losing a loved one.

Joanne Fink, an award‑winning designer, calligrapher, and author, spent 20 years as an art director in the greeting card industry. Her studio, Lakeside Design, specializes in developing products for the gift, stationery, craft and faith-based markets. With more than a million books in print, Joanne is the author of 11 books from Fox Chapel Publishing, including Complete Guide to Bible Journaling, Zenspirations(R) Coloring Book Inspirations, Flowers of Faith Coloring Book, and L'Chaim: Celebrate Life.

When You Lose Someone You Love

Fox Chapel Publishing, Inc.

On August 3rd, my beloved husband, Andy Trattner, lay down to take a nap, had a heart attack while he was sleeping, and never woke up. He was only 53.

When we met at the end of my freshman year of college, his love changed my life; when he died, his loss shattered my world.

For several weeks after Andy died, I was so numb that I wasn't really functional. In fact, if I hadn't had to get up to get our children off to school, I don't think I would have ever gotten out of bed.

I met Andy when I was 18, and we were married for 29 years. He was my husband, my best friend, my business partner, and the father of our two children; his death has profoundly impacted every aspect of my life.

As an artist and writer, I process things by writing and drawing about them. The following pages are from the journal that I started keeping a few weeks after Andy died.

Keeping this journal has been cathartic for me. I am blessed to have incredibly supportive friends and family, and yet it has been hard for me to share with them how alone I feel, how sad I am, and how much I miss Andy. Instead, I've poured my soul into these pages.

I've discovered that grieving is like taking a journey toward an unknown destination against your will: it is incredibly difficult, heartbreaking, and time consuming — and there aren't any shortcuts.

At some point in our lives, most of us will experience the loss of someone we love and will need to deal with that loss in order to move on with our life's journey.

I have been deeply touched when those who have survived their own losses reached out to me with compassion and love. And although I am not very far along on my own journey, I wanted to share my journal in hopes that it will make your grief journey — or the journey of someone you love — a little easier.

Joanne Fink