This book is one of an astonishing amazement. It opens with a short story, written by the author’s now deceased daughter. It is a story that was told to her about her Father, Zig. This sets the scene nicely to show the strong relationship between these two people. 

The Foreword and the Introduction are a must read, because of the history and scene set that it has in it. The first chapter dives right into the death of his adult child, Suzan. She has been ill from a bad lung, and is going into the hospital to wait for a lung transplant. Mr. Ziglar devotes the whole second chapter to the journal writings of Suzan’s brother-in-law, Jim, who is also one of Suzan’s closest friends. The way that Jim writes is very moving. As I read it, I could feel the pain myself that this family was going through–the highs and lows in day-to-day living, not knowing if the next day or even hour would be Suzan’s last. Ten days pass in intensive care before Suzan passes away. 

The next few chapters move a little slowly and are confusing.   Ziglar is writing this book three years after the death of his daughter, but it is obvious that he is still grieving very much. He tends to drift off a lot onto other death related topics, and he quite nicely references the Bible . Readers might find themselves wondering  what this has to do with the title of the book. It isn’t until Chapter 12 that it all comes together and the reader can understand what the last ten chapters were about. He covers tragic accidental deaths, suicide, and chronic illness leading to death. In the chapter on suicide, he does a very nice job explaining how it is not our place to say that our loved ones are not in Heaven. God is a very forgiving God, and it is not for us to condemn our loved ones to Hell because they committed suicide. We do not know what happened right before they died. 

Mr. Ziglar also does a wonderful job in explaining that we should not think of the death as a “loss” of our loved ones. To lose something means to not know where that person or item is. We, as Christians, know where our loved ones are, we just are missing them. The grief we tend to feel is more for us, and not for the deceased one. They are in such a wonderful place, and we are still stuck here on earth. 

This is a very moving book and is recommended to read for Christians and non-Christians a like. It is a must for every Church library, and highly recommended for anyone preparing for death or trying to make sense out of the death of a loved one. 

Categories: Grief, Memoirs

Keywords: Christianity, religion, children