Chalese Stevens faced every mother’s worst nightmare in June of 2004. She lost her four-year-old son when he drowned in a water park swimming pool. From that day forward, motherhood changed into a nautical journey through loss and grief.
This grieving mother has been able to face her devastating loss by turning her story into the raw and vulnerable pages of this book. She takes you through the painful emotions of child loss and how she handled her grief. Stevens captures the raw and dark side she endured throughout her loss and how she embraced motherhood once again.
She admits that this healing journey will be a lifelong process, and everyone walks a path that is unique to them. This book, “Finding 40: A Mother’s Walk With Grief,” is about how her individualized healing journey has consisted of the help and love she was given, along with the support and love Stevens gives to others. She not only comforts those who are suffering from loss and grief but also fights for lives not yet taken through her Utah-based nonprofit organization, Rainy Days Foundation. Her healing journey is a light to so many walking a similar path of not just child loss, but to inspire hope for anyone suffering the loss of a loved one.
Endorsements:
Finding 40 is a beautifully obscured collection of thoughts, poetry, letters, and raw emotions weaved together in a way that touches the reader and awakens a wholehearted empathic connection. This book lets you into a distinctive grief process that speaks loudly to the necessity of the individual healing journey. The author connects naturally to the deep therapeutic work that accompanies grief, loss, and trauma teaching to appreciate the darkness and still welcome the light, showing the wisdom in our rawness, and always allowing room for hope.
As a therapist and a mom, I recommend this book to anyone struggling with grief and loss, the shame and guilt that comes with being a parent, and those who are seeking recovery of any kind.
~ Meg Martinez-Dettamanti, M.S., LCMHC, CSAT, EMDR-Trained
In her vulnerable and wrenching memoir, Chalese Stevens steps boldly into a mother’s worst nightmare, the day her son, four-year-old Kaleb, drowned. Chalese takes readers through fourteen years of anger, sorrow, guilt, dysfunction, and healing, to the moment she heard Kaleb’s gentle voice whisper, “My accident happened because it was the only way for us to be able to help so many.” Chalese now helps others heal. For those who have suffered profound loss, this book is a must-read. Thanks, Chalese.
JEFF O’DRISCOLL, MD FACEP I Exist to Help Souls Heal Physician
