Compassion Summer 2021

Summer 2021 - Compassion | www.tcf.org.uk 17 A Song Inside: A Memoir by Gill Mann This book, a mother’s memoir following the death of her son, reads as two interconnected stories. Sam died at the age of 22 while travelling in Thailand. In the previous four years he had suffered from schizophrenia. Features of his illness included a denial of being ill, rejection of treatment and anger with his family for referring him to mental health services. Sam’s mother tells of her grief journey in the two years following his death while alternately reflecting on her life with Sam since his childhood. She describes in painful detail the struggle to keep him safe as his behaviour became disturbed and risky. Her grief is linked with feelings of guilt that she’d not been able to protect him from the consequences of his illness. I recommend this book to parents of children whose death was linked to a mental illness and to anyone who wants to better understand the enormous impact of mental illness on all members of a family. It would assist health care professionals and emergency service staff to appreciate the acute distress of young people and their families who are living with such an illness. Anne McAreavey There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, and of unspeakable love. Washington Irving