I've been working at Wheeler Funeral Home since December, and it has really been an adjustment for me. Even though I mostly answer phones and do insurance paperwork, I do sometimes have the opportunity (and privilege) to talk with our family members. By the way, we don't think of people who come to us in their time of grief as "customers" we think of them as "families" and in a sense, they do become part of our family.
My heart really goes out to folks who are grieving. I often wonder what I can do or say to make things a little lighter. The other day I was sitting at my desk and thinking of what books deal with the grief process. Believe it or not, the Harry Potter books came to mind.
The seven book series by J.K. Rowling is the story of a young boy named Harry who was orphaned as a baby, raised by an aunt and uncle, shipped off to school, and in the process becomes an amazing young man. The school that he is sent to is no ordinary school though; it is a school that teaches magic. Through all his adventures, Harry gets into trouble, learns hard lessons, experiences joy and pain, and in the process he is reaffirmed by this new friends and his new found talents.
My favorite book in the series is the very first one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Longing to see his parents who died when he was a baby, Harry stumbles across a magic mirror. Here are a few excerpts....
"He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air - she and the others existed only in the mirror."
"She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes - her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass."
..." 'Mum?' he whispered. 'Dad?' ...He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness. How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses."
Later the Head Master, Dumbledore comes in to teach Harry what the mirror is about..." 'It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts....Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen....It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.' "
The series has many little nuggets of truth like that sprinkled throughout. In one of the later books, Harry loses a close friend. The author Rowling just has a special way of guiding us through Harry's journeys....the ups and downs.
The first book is 309 pages, but it is easy to follow and is a quick read. Please let me know if you check it out! : )
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