Staying Alive: A Love Story

by Laura B. Hayden

Overview

Staying Alive: A Love Story is a memoir of loss and recovery about the author's search for meaning after the untimely death of her 49-year-old husband. Told with the grit and wit of a true survivor, her and her childrens' experience through more than ten years may be considered a quiet triumph and touchstone for anyone who has suffered -- or will suffer -- great loss.

Called a beautiful reminder of what really matters, the book has been named one of the three top memoirs of 2011 by Reader Views and was nominated for the 2012 CSPA Book of the Year in the Christian Living category. The American Institute of Health Care Professionals recently noted, "bereavement counselors can also learn how a person finds strength in writing about his or her own loss from these stories."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013059474
Publisher:	Oceanus World Link Services, Inc.
Publication date:	06/20/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	366 KB

About the Author

Laura spent her childhood in Brooklyn, NY, and her teens in Enfield, CT, where she went on to teach high school and freelance for regional publications.  She married, raised her daughter and son through her thirties and forties, and was widowed before she turned fifty. She completed her MFA in Writing at Western Connecticut State University in 2010.

Laura’s previous writing has been published by The Hartford Courant, Northeast magazine, the Journal Inquirer, Connecticut Parent, Hartford Woman, and Imprint publications. Her essay, "Saved by the Belle" took first place in the First Annual Mark Twain Days Essay Contest on American Politics & Government, judged by Russell Baker, Garry Trudeau, and Joyce Chadwick-Joshua. Recently, her essay "Nesting" received an honorable mention from Connecticut Review, a journal published by the Connecticut State University system.

Editorial Reviews

Laura Hayden's memoir is a powerful reflection on the most unimaginable loss a person can suffer. Hayden is a rare author who combines personal maturity, honesty, and wisdom with an excellent writer's sense for how to tell her story in a way that discovers the universal humanity in such a private event. She is able to celebrate the beauty and joy of life while simultaneously plumbing the depths of a great sorrow.

John Sheirer

With vivid candor, Laura Hayden acknowledges the many ways grief overwhelms a young woman as she builds a “new normal” after her husband’s untimely death. Leading the reader into her life and the lives of her two children, Laura searches for a reason to make sense of the tragedy. Never with pity, Laura embraces the image of her husband in their children, as they grow into adults.

Elizabeth F. Szewczyk

In her luminous memoir, Staying Alive: A Love Story, Laura B. Hayden shares personal observations about loss and grief written after the death of her beloved 49-year-old husband, Larry. Faced with raising two children alone and her own struggle with cancer, Hayden digs deep to tell her poignant story of life reinvented. Her astute observations of the natural world clearly informed her ability to create a totally invested life for herself and her children.

Irene Sherlock