Pages: 356
Date Released: 29/04/2021
Date Read: 05/06/2021
Elizabeth Coffey once had seven brothers and sisters, but today only she and one brother are left. Thanks to ‘an insane series of cruel blows’ variously involving illness, accidents, mental health mismanagement and suicide, not one of her pre-mentioned siblings made it past their sixties. And yet through it all, the love, life and laughter have shone through – sometimes, it has seemed, from beyond the grave. This is Elizabeth’s funny, shocking, tragic, heart-rending story.
“It struck me, at an early age, being the little one of the family, that there was a high probability my dearly loved brothers and sisters were going to die before me. I didn’t expect it to happen quite so soon, and quite so tragically.”
Elizabeth put a message on a book club Facebook group asking if anyone would be interested in reviewing her book. I happened to see this post and contacted her, offering my book reviewing services. And I’m so glad I did.
This is the true story about how Elizabeth lost 5 of her 6 siblings, her parents, and her mother-in-law, in such a short amount of time. Car accidents, mental health mismanagement, suicide, alcoholism, drug use, illness, strokes – you name it, they’ve experienced it. Somehow, not one of the pre-mentioned siblings made it past their 60s – an awfully young age to die.
I can understand what Elizabeth is talking about when these tragedies happen one after another. In the space of 5 years I lost my final grandparent, my father, a childhood friend, an uncle, two aunts, and a very dear family friend. It was just one loss after another, and after a while, death becomes a bit blasé for you. Grief just becomes your permanent state, and once you’re down that dark road, it is hard to veer off it.
But Elizabeth manages to write with such hope and joy and love that you know, regardless of the trauma they’ve experienced as a family, there is always the possibility of coming out of it better the other side.
It is true that at the end of the day, once all is s aid and done, no matter the hardships, love is really the thing that will keep us all going.
Books By Your Bedside 