When my Dad died several years ago, someone said “He is so missed, because he was so loved.” This has stuck with me and become a bit of a mantra of sorts. Perhaps it resonated because it reminds me of a line from a song by his beloved Beatles, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

“Good Grief” is a new release written by mother-daughter, Catherine Mayer and Anne Mayer Bird who were both widowed early in the pandemic. While isolated by grief and the lockdown, they found comfort and healing through weekly contacts with one another. You might recognize Catherine Mayer’s voice is full of humor, honesty, and accessible emotion.

I found this book to be profoundly comforting, uncomfortable, and thought provoking, as someone continuing to navigate a world without my Dad and as a mental health professional. While the authors write about their experiences losing their husbands amidst the pandemic, the takeaways can certainly be generalized for anyone experiencing loss. I love the stated intention:

As always, I’m grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review. The words and opinions are all my own.

This book was such a beautiful, well-narrativized reflection on grief. I loved in particular the way that the author interwove hers and her mother's stories, and then connected those losses to the larger picture of loss around them. Her love for her husband, Andy, and her mother's love for her husband, John, shone so brightly throughout. This book will be a great comfort to many who have lost loved ones, at any point but especially in this past year and a half. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read, and be impacted by, this work.

Catherine Mayer’s and Anne Mayer Bird’s wrenching, often witty and spirited, co-narrative of grief and bereavement in the grip of Covid-19 offers a window into a world many readers may have visited.
Mayer’s beloved stepfather passed away, and a mere forty-one days later, her own husband died too. Additional layers complicated the grief including Covid-19, sheltering in place in the United Kingdom, and Mayer’s husband’s popular musical career.
Mayer Bird offers letters that she writes to her husband (Mayer’s stepfather), John, at the end of each section, to communicate how she is maneuvering.
Mayer’s dark humor, for example, referring to the seemingly endless tasks regarding probate, insurance, and her husband’s musical estate as “sadmin” a portmanteau of staggering appropriateness, offers levity, while guiding many through the other pains, and challenges of tending to grief when a loved one has died.
Excellent for readers of Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking,” Megan Devine’s “It’s Ok that You’re Not Ok” and Joan Halifax’s “Being with Dying” and similar.

Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death by mother and daughter Anne Mayer Bird and Catherine Mayer who were widowed within 41 days of each other on the eve of the pandemic and then experienced lockdown all alone. In their memoir, they shared ways they navigated their losses as well as the questions and challenges that confronted them. The book contains letters Anne wrote to her husband John about events that had occurred since his death. Through the book, they hope to help others who have lost loved ones. #GoodGrief #NetGalley

Good Grief, by Catherine Mayer and Anne Mayer Bird, I thought I would of gotten more out of this book then I did. Its more depressing then it was helpful.

Reading this book, your heart sinks knowing these two people ( like millions of others) lost their loving family in the midst of a terrible year. Goodness, so hard to fathom.

Thanks to authors, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.