Thank you for visiting my website

Dear Cindy, Love Mom was never meant to be a book. When Cindy died I was utterly devastated. Breathing and grieving were all I could manage.

A grief counselor suggested that I put my feelings on paper. I didn’t understand how to do this until I thought about writing a letter to Cindy. Very quickly, sitting at the computer each morning and writing to my daughter became part of my daily life. While the process was incredibly painful, it made me feel close to my Cindy.

The letters are honest descriptions of what I experienced each day. They are just as I wrote them, original, unedited, often raw, heartbreaking and sometimes uplifting.

Throughout that year I voraciously read book after book about the healing process. I wanted comfort from others who had experienced what I was going through, a book that would function as both guide and companion. I never found it.

Sometime toward the end of that first year, I realized that I had truly begun to heal. The letters describe the journey I made, and I wondered if the letters would help others deal with their loss. I decided to compile selected entries and observations I had made into a book.

The letters are honest descriptions of what I experienced each day.

Dear Cindy, Love Mom is the culmination of that effort. It is a first-person account of what I went through and is meant to help those suffering from loss, those dealing with the sufferer and provide a window into the pain of the grieving for the therapist and social worker. Recently friends confided that they had no idea of the depth of my pain and despair until they read the wrenching description of it in the book. Others have remarked about the tremendous accomplishment of eventually finding joy in the blessings that I count.

I hope you find some comfort in reading Dear Cindy, Love Mom.

–Elaine Roberts Schaller