Shared Moments, Finding the Spirit of Hope is a book that explores one family’s moments of healing and inspiration in the years following the loss of a child. The Poduch family experienced a peace imparting sense of 9-year-old Lauren’s presence after her death. Bereaved mother and author, Carol C. Poduch, charted a course to hope and healing while sharing the family’s experiences with others in storytelling fashion. Ultimately, she was encouraged to begin writing her stories down. They were published locally in Waterloo, Ontario and eventually picked up on a broader scale. It quickly became apparent that the bereaved, their supporters and also the non-bereaved felt uplifted while hearing tales of Lauren.
The book is comprised of a series of Carol’s stories, vignettes that when experienced collectively take the reader from the moment of shock when a beautiful child sustains an insurmountable head injury through many of the details that bereaved parents must face and ultimately to a place of peaceful resolution.
Carol’s conversational writing style draws the reader into her world in a manner that is guaranteed to generate tears, laughter, love and ultimately the integration of one of life’s most challenging yet compelling passages – the death of a child.
Shared Moments is a book that bereaved parents will not want to miss, yet the messages are universal. The experiences Carol shares in her book give the bereaved and non-bereaved alike reason to pause and reflect on the nature of life, love, loss and hope after loss.