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Rating: 
Summary: The Book that Shows You're Not Alone
Review: After I lost my husband this is the only book that had the words to explain the feelings that were occurring. I have never had such feelings before so I didn't have any words for them. This book showed me that I was not alone.....others who lost their husbands had similar feelings (even to the same depth). I strongly recommend this book to any person who has lost their husband. It is not a book to read immediately after the death -- it is better 3 to 6 months after the loss.
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Summary: Pulls no punches on the difficult task of grieving.
Review: I bought this book just 1 month after the tragic death of my younger brother even though I had silently sworn that I wouldn't be one of "those people" who roamed the self-help sections in book stores seeking guidance and comfort. How pleasantly surprised I was by the frankness and refreshing honesty of this book. Those of us who've lost someone close know that the last thing you need to hear from friends (or authors) is empty promises of healing and peace. Although the author's experience in the book deals primarily with the loss of a spouse, I found a multitude of information and common ground that hit home with my own confrontations with grief. Long story short, I highly recommend this book to anyone who may have lost a spouse, grandparent, sibling, child, or friend. This book prompted me to write a journal of my own experiences and thoughts during the first year after my brother's death. In doing so, I now have a measuring stick to gauge my progress and recovery. I feel I owe Stephanie Ericsson a debt of gratitude for writing this book. It literally started me on the road to peace and acceptance. The highest compliment I could pay her is that I've given the book to numerous friends who've also lost loved ones.
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Summary: ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!
Review: MORBID, BRUTAL, SHOCKING and CANDID!
But if you have experienced a loss, at least try to read it! I found it very difficult to read because of the Author's style. Many times her choice of words were way over my non-literary head and even seemed more like fiction or phantasy. But I plodded on. Most of the time thinking that her situation was so different from mine that I was wasting my time. Much of the book seemed to make me more despondent and I cried a lot. But I plodded on. Somewhere in that little book there had to be something that might help me. And, yes, there was. The section titled "On Preciousness (and Loving)" was very enlightening. It opened my eyes to who I was (and still am) and who she was. It let me realize why things happened over our many years of life together that I had always wondered about. Again, let me say, if you have experienced a loss, at least try to read it!
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Summary: A letter to Ms Ericsson
Review: Ms. Ericsson, In case no one has recently told you, I want to make sure you know the value of your words in "Companion Through The Darkness". Yes , I am grieving. My magnificent wife who I loved for 31 years died last August from a progressively worsening lung disease that caused her active life to totally collapse the last 7 months of her life. My wife was a "social" comedian who loved to make people laugh, of Italian heritage but born in Nice, France area, an accomplished artist whose paintings of Provence hang in many homes here in New England, a gourmet cook whose charity dinners sold for over $1000 and who could throw a dinner party together for 12 people in a wink and have all the diners laughing the whole evening. She was always attired in her own fashion and had style and taste groomed from France and Italy but still took delight in helping her female friends shop.
She was respected and loved by everyone who knew her. 300 people came to her funeral and most every one wanted to speak about what my wife meant to them.
I tell you all this for a purpose: This was a woman that was so very hard for her husband to lose. The agony of my grief was unbearable. I threw out many meaningless articles and books sent to me. Yours was the only book that from the moment I started reading helped me. I found such amazment in your description of what I was feeling.
I have reread it often and continue to do so as my life goes on to a "next chapter". I find I want to compare what you did under similar circumstances. I am now ordering additional books- one for a friend in need and one to give to a psychologist friend to recommend to his patients as he sees fit. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your wonderfull insight, sensitivity and writing ability.
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Summary: Companion through the Darkness
Review: My wife Robin died of lung cancer 11 months ago. My four daughters are heart broken,motherless and trying to cope with the reality of a lifetime without their mom. I came across Stephanie Erricsons book Companion through the Darkness on Amazon .com . Reading this book was an emotional rollercoaster of tears and laughter. Her uncommon insight and understanding of the process of grief and rebirth continues to help me through this hell. I can remember looking at my wedding ring and thinking "what am I to do?" Ms. Erricson had some sage advice which I followed. This book, above all the others I have read, is far and away the most important guide to healing and reconnection you will find.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a romantic novel of death
Review: Perhaps if it were still the new age boom of the 90's, this book might be readable. For 2004, it is highly dated. The style of writing is more akin to a romance novel: wistful, simile-ridden, long lost love-like: "So the days roll by, like the waves on a beach. Some are big and violent, some creep up and recede without any sound at all..." Rather than being eye-opening to the reader, the author is self-serving in including her wandering thoughts: "Why does a dog growl at some people and not others? How did Einstein discover the theory of relativity? How do the squirrels know to grow thicker coats when there is a hard winter coming?" Understandably, when grief and stress have overcome us, our minds become jelly, but the reader, looking for peace and comfort, finds none in these inane passages. Also, writing to the dead party, as if we are peeking into the author's diary, is pointless and uncomfortable: "Your sister, the nurse, explained your autopsy today....even though you ran two miles a day, ate macrobiotically, quit smoking..." And how about these gothic chapter titles? They are what every 14 year old goth can only aspire to: Blackouts, Bloodletting, Canonizing the Dead, Demons, Fragments of Wholeness, The Grace of Spiritual Death, Hair Shirts and Other Penance, Inadvertent Isolation, Lifting off the Mask, The Raw Ache.... If you are looking for comfort and/or insight, look elsewhere. If you're an aspiring gothic poet, however, this is a great textbook. Call it "How to Write Trite Goth Poetry In 7 Days or Less."
Rating:
Summary: Like a romantic novel of death
Review: Perhaps if it were still the new age boom of the 90's, this book might be readable. For 2004, it is highly dated. The style of writing is more akin to a romance novel: wistful, simile-ridden, long lost love-like: "So the days roll by, like the waves on a beach. Some are big and violent, some creep up and recede without any sound at all..." Rather than being eye-opening to the reader, the author is self-serving in including her wandering thoughts: "Why does a dog growl at some people and not others? How did Einstein discover the theory of relativity? How do the squirrels know to grow thicker coats when there is a hard winter coming?" Understandably, when grief and stress have overcome us, our minds become jelly, but the reader, looking for peace and comfort, finds none in these inane passages. Also, writing to the dead party, as if we are peeking into the author's diary, is pointless and uncomfortable: "Your sister, the nurse, explained your autopsy today....even though you ran two miles a day, ate macrobiotically, quit smoking..." And how about these gothic chapter titles? They are what every 14 year old goth can only aspire to: Blackouts, Bloodletting, Canonizing the Dead, Demons, Fragments of Wholeness, The Grace of Spiritual Death, Hair Shirts and Other Penance, Inadvertent Isolation, Lifting off the Mask, The Raw Ache.... If you are looking for comfort and/or insight, look elsewhere. If you're an aspiring gothic poet, however, this is a great textbook. Call it "How to Write Trite Goth Poetry In 7 Days or Less."
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Summary: no sugar coating here! True life account of being a widow!
Review: This book is not just for those suffering the loss of life. Life can be lost in other ways too. I read this book after being betrayed by my spouse. Grief fell on my life violently, just like a death had occurred. 'An avalanche of losses' is what Janis Spring calls it in "After the Affair". Stephanie Ericsson's book takes you through an impossible journey. Her personal strength and warrior spirit found a way to move beyond the pain of an unimaginable tragedy. Within this book lies a deep understanding of grief, and a way which exists to overcome. In each chapter, she tortures you with the rawness and honesty of her personal journal through crisis. Then she offers relief by showing the healing and perspectives gained in time. As the title states, this book can be your "Companion Through the Darkness".
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Summary: Brave, honest, intense writing
Review: This book is not just for those suffering the loss of life. Life can be lost in other ways too. I read this book after being betrayed by my spouse. Grief fell on my life violently, just like a death had occurred. 'An avalanche of losses' is what Janis Spring calls it in "After the Affair". Stephanie Ericsson's book takes you through an impossible journey. Her personal strength and warrior spirit found a way to move beyond the pain of an unimaginable tragedy. Within this book lies a deep understanding of grief, and a way which exists to overcome. In each chapter, she tortures you with the rawness and honesty of her personal journal through crisis. Then she offers relief by showing the healing and perspectives gained in time. As the title states, this book can be your "Companion Through the Darkness".
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