The Birthday Card: Snapshots of a Man’s Grief
B.L. Park
$14.95
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It is a sickening feeling to experience the death of someone who is precious to you. To be hit full in the face with the reality that a person whose life is intricately interwoven in yours has been forcibly removed from it and you will never, never see them on this planet again. You will not be able to talk to them, or hug them. All you will ever have for the rest of your life will be memories, which no matter how hard you try to hold onto them, will fade. Photographs, birthday cards, videos and journal entries will all become two-dimensional and lose their authenticity, because the person they represent is no longer accessible. No matter what you do, you can no longer interact with the image, for the connection with the real person is severed, and there is no making it better, no turning back the clock. And when all of this gut-wrenching, cold, reality is jam-packed into one single moment … a blink of the eye, no wonder your fuse can blow, and you break and crumple like a dried-up piece of pottery.
The author of The Birthday Card, like Job, asks, ‘Where is God in our darkest moments?’
Bruce L. Park has worked as a secondary school teacher at Maranatha Christian School for the last 30 years. He has taught a number of subjects, including Science, Woodwork and Mathematics. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Monash University and a Diploma of Teaching from Rusden College.
Reviews & Commendations
Naomi Reed:
Life writing reminds us, more than anything, that our stories are shared – that the tears we cry and the questions we raise at 3 in the morning, are not just ours, they are somehow everybody’s. The Birthday Card is a poignant example of this – Bruce writes in an honest, insightful manner about the loss of his son, but fo