He would later convert, first to theism, and eventually to Christianity, but on some level he never stopped grieving the loss of his mother. It impacted his childhood confidence in God to the point that within three years he had announced himself an atheist. The defining event in Lewis’ life is arguably the loss of his mother to cancer on August 23, 1908, when Lewis was not yet 10 years old.

Nevertheless, I think some biographical background will be useful. Such is the clarity of Lewis’ writing that you can benefit from diving into A Grief Observed without knowing anything about the author’s life. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis, or Jack to his friends) can come and sit down beside you, and perhaps by sharing his pain, somewhat lessen yours. I will instead try to serve as a conduit through which C. So please understand that I have no intention of trying to tell you what to do. Let me begin by saying that I am very conscious of being in the presence of people who have suffered greatly, and whose grief exceeds anything I’ve ever experienced. The text of my talk appears below, but because it was a talk designed to last about 45 minutes (and it did), you need to know that this is quite long (perhaps over-long) for a blog. I was recently privileged to speak to their monthly gathering on C.

Since then they have focussed their lives on helping other hurting people, including taking up the mantle of leading a city-wide grief recovery ministry called Tidings of Hope. In 2016 Jason and Shauna Caldwell lost their twin sons in a tragic bobsledding accident at Calgary Olympic Park.

Book a grief observed