Mother-of-three Susan Loch lived a carefree life until 21 March 2011. Yet when she woke to find a policeman standing beside her husband, she immediately guessed the sickening truth. Jessica, her nineteen-year-old daughter, had been killed, the latest victim of a treacherous stretch of the Princes Highway on the New South Wales south coast. Life, as Susan knew it, had changed forever.
Jessica’s Gift is a candid and heartfelt story, charting how Susan grappled with each subsequent day. Initially, her grief felt intolerable and unending, but while Susan despaired, she didn’t give up. Gradually, hope, peace and even joy crept back into her life. Susan’s strength and resilience will inspire anyone who seeks to understand the trauma of child bereavement.
Table of Content
Prologue
Unthinkable Shock
The Mountain
A Dark Journey Home
Discussions and All the Flowers
Early Years: Our Jessie Lou Lou
Family
The Funeral
Taking Jess’s Ashes Home
Grief
The Silent House, the Rock and Day-to-Day Things
The First Year, Counsellors and Trying to Heal
Wrapping the Boys in Cotton Wool
The Tree, Work and the Shire
Reality: Life Without Jessica
The Compassionate Friends, the Cathartic Journey
Mediums and Belief
Yoga, Mindset and That Girl on the Train
The Comments and the Box of Chocolates
My Healing: Bali
Occasions
My Real Human Pain: Day-by-Day Life
The Future
Time to Make Peace and an Appreciation of Life
Hope for a Better Day
Postscript
Afterword
About the Author
Picture Credits
Acknowledgements
About the author
Alison Fraser is a publishing professional with over twenty years of experience. She has a background in Australian literature and is one of only five Australian book editors trained by Reader’s Digest as a book condenser. Alison now runs her own freelance editorial business, Book Therapy. She assists authors by providing services including manuscript assessment, structural editing workshops and mentoring, as well as guidance through the publishing process. She specialises in memoir and literary fiction, and is a member of the Institute of Professional Editors.
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