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MWSA Review
Ordinary and extraordinary! A mom uses these words to describe her son, forever lost to her in a war far away. This is a heartfelt journey filled with emotion and yet abounds in times and things remembered. Bring your tissues when you sit down to read Glenda’s book, 24 Years and 40 Days.
Loss is the ripping out of one’s heart on a journey to not acceptance but realization. No journey will ever be more difficult, no one can tell you “things will be okay.” Deal with it and get over it would be like throwing gas on a fire. Healing is something we each deal with in our own way. Healing is a tunnel, one which has no visible light at the end, rather in time a light dimly appears.
This is the beginning of the healing process. This mother has reached that place. A place where the great memories and not so great, the smiles and humorous things of her son’s life start to fill her mind. The loss will forever exist but the life and time together will always remain.
This is not a “how wonderful, pat him and me on the back” book though, that would be understandable. Mom (Glenda) states only fourteen pages into her book that “Daniel was not the most gifted person, but he worked harder than anyone else.” Accomplishment requires work, work is effort, the end result is success on whatever level and clearly she has a right to be proud.
When a mother can say “falling apart won’t bring him back,” that is a milestone. When that same mother can add to that, “he would be very disappointed in me if I did,” her choice is to not fall aprt in honoring his memory.
Reviewed by: jim greenwald (2015)
Author's Synopsis
He was never mine to keep. I was entrusted to bear him, raise him, and delight in him for 24 years and 40 days before God called him home. This is the sweet, inspiring story of the ordinary and extraordinary life of Daniel Hyde.
His mother shares her wonderful journey with her son, and the solemn honesty of the horrific difficulty faced by any parent who loses a child. Filled with memories, but determined to keep his spirit alive without regret, Glenda and her family join those who knew and loved him to celebrate Daniel's life.
This is my commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends. John 15: 12,13