Always Too Soon:
Voices of Support for Those
Who Have Lost Both Parents
(2006, Seal Press)
Always Too Soon is an intimate collection of interviews with celebrities and others about the emotional impact of losing both parents. It is ultimately an uplifting and empowering book – inspiring readers not to become stuck in pain, but to overcome it. Among those interviewed:
- Rosanna Arquette
- Yogi Berra
- Rosanne Cash
- Hope Edelman
- Barbara Ehrenreich
- Geraldine Ferraro
- Dennis Franz
- Mariel Hemingway
- Ice-T
To learn more about Always Too Soon, please visit www.alwaystoosoon.com.
Within months of publication, Always Too Soon sparked the creation of Parentless Parents, a nationwide network of support groups for mothers and fathers who have suffered the loss of their own parents. To learn more about Parentless Parents and how you can join, please visit www.parentlessparents.com
A portion of the royalties from the sale of Always Too Soon is being donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (www.ocrf.org) and the LUNGevity Foundation. (www.lungevity.org)
Praise and Reviews:
“This book is a comfort to anyone who has ever lost a parent. In 2000, I lost my father, and two years later, I lost my mother. I was lucky to have them with me into my fifties. Others aren't so fortunate, but all endure... Each story here eloquently captures the heart of loss. The lessons, forged from sorrow and eventual acceptance, are invaluable and intensely real."
-- Senator John Kerry
"I wish I'd had a copy of Always Too Soon after my own parents died. To find oneself orphaned in middle age is a curious thing: You feel deserving of only the mildest form of sympathy, yet privately the sorrow is deep. The stories in Allison Gilbert's new book offer proof that no matter how old we are when we lose our parents, it is a singular kind of grief. The essays reveal how others have made their way into the new life that each of us must construct for ourselves once we are no longer anyone's daughter or son."
-- Caitlin Flanagan,
author of To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife
"This often heart-wrenching collection of voices should provide the type of textual "support group" formerly absent from the literature of grief."
-- Library Journal
“It’s a book I’d recommend highly to friends in need of comfort.”
Cindy La Ferle, Suburban Lifestyles (Detroit)
“Gilbert offers up a literary support group…these intimate stories...are raw, heartbreaking and powerful.”
Heather Salerno, The Journal News
“The stories offer validation, suggestions for coping and most importantly, hope.”
TaRessa Stovall, The Montclair Times
"Take this book and treat it like a friend. Spend time with the people in it; you can read it in private, reread it, cry, remember, mourn, wrap yourself in your own memories triggered by something someone else has expressed. You will undoubtedly continue to find comfort in the lives, courage, and determination of the people you meet in this book long after you have put it down."
-- Lois F. Akner, C.S.W.,
author of How to Survive the Loss of a Parent
"Readers who have lost both parents, and those anticipating such a loss, will find hope and comfort in these moving stories."
-- J. William Worden, Ph.D.,
author of Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, Psychologist, Harvard Medical School
“I recommend Always Too Soon to any reader…”
---Helen Fitzgerald, Training Director, American Hospice Foundation
