A unique tale of grief and the way you can see signs towards better times in your life during the aftermath of someone integral's death. ( )

The Stones, The Crows, The Grass, The Moon is the third story in the Missing Collection from Audible/Amazon Originals. This tale is the story of grief and wonder Author Walter Kirn experienced following the death of his mother. Kirn and his brother had to make medical decisions for his mother when she was in a coma. She had a Living Will that expressed her will to die if she was incapacitated, but Kirn still had to sign the medical papers to ok the use of morphine and other drugs that allowed her to slip away. It was emotional and heart wrenching. He felt responsible....guilt, sadness, anger.... And he kept having recurring images of a Native American holy place pop up in his head. They had been talking about visiting it before his mother's death. He took his family there after suffering with the mental anguish of ending his mother's life...and it helped to heal him and his family.

Lovely story! Very emotional and mystical. I have never had to make end of life medical decisions for a loved one....but I can see how it would be traumatizing, even if there was a DNR, living will or other legal paper stipulating that's what the person wanted. I can only imagine that sense of responsibility and guilt adding to the top of grief and loss. But, there was a sense of hope, forgiveness and healing in Kirn's story as well. Overall, a lovely listening experience.

The Missing Collection gathers six stories about accepting loss. I've listened to two of them so far. Both enjoyable. I will be working my way through the rest of the collection bit by bit. The stories are emotional and raw.....and I can only handle a bit of that at one time. They are all short, easy length stories....under two hours. I hope they are all as enjoyable as the first two I've listened to. So far, Kirn's tale of the loss of his mother and how it affected him is my favorite of the collection. This was a sad, but spiritual, story. Loved it! Full stars from me. ( )

More a personal essay about dealing with his mother's death than anything. ( )