This book is part memoir, part guidebook for navigating loss and rediscovering the self. Most of all it is like sitting down for a chat with a girlfriend over coffee.
Susannah Conway is a photographer and writer sharing her grief journey after the sudden and unexpected death of the man she loved. In the aftermath of her loss, she found herself, rediscovered her love of photography and in the process found a way to help women the world over.
Susannah explains that she “devised a class that used the camera as a tool to reconnect with the self via photo assignments and journaling exercises.” The result was the Unravelling: Ways of Seeing Myself e-course.
“Unravelling is not a bad thing. It is not coming undone or losing control. It’s letting go in the best possible way. Untangling the knots that hold you back, unwrapping the gifts you’ve hidden for too long, unearthing the potential that’s always been there, finally ditching the labels and should-haves and letting yourself be what you were always meant to be.”
As a bereaved parent – I have experienced the death of 4 sons – I could identify with Susannah’s experience and I found myself nodding my head as I read certain passages. As she says: “Each person experiences grief in their own individual way. And though I have thought to lose a child would be the most devastating loss of all, there is no hierarchy of to grief – only we can know the pain we feel and what we have lost.”
Each chapter of the book is followed by a reflection, a creative exercise to help you reconnect with yourself. My favourite is the small treats – 20 treats that bring you joy. Susannah’s beautiful Polaroid’s are interspersed throughout the book.
The book reaches such a wide audience, those that have experienced a loss, creatives, and those wanting to reconnect with themselves.
I highly recommend Susannah’s book to anyone who has experienced a loss and is struggling to find their way. “We do survive. And then we thrive.”
This review was originally published here at Exhale Literary Magazine
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