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H is for Hawk


Winner of BookBrowse's 2015 Nonfiction Award.
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How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

Created: 03/20/16

Replies: 7

Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?


Posted Apr. 03, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
BarbMJ

Join Date: 10/10/14

Posts: 11

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

I felt Helen learned how necessary friendship is after attending her father's memorial service. Before then she relied on friends for crises but not for sharing memories or sharing grief. She seemed to become a better friend after realizing that grief does not have to be a solo activity.


Posted Apr. 03, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
joyces

Join Date: 06/16/11

Posts: 410

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

I think she was so broken by her father's death that she was very fortunate to have friends who were there for her consistently through her strange behavior and isolationism. Her friends were the ones who really kept her grounded when she seemed a bit off the deep end some of the time. They never judged but just cared.


Posted Apr. 04, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
laurap

Join Date: 06/19/12

Posts: 407

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

Not important enough - and I think she finally realized that after her father's memorial service. At that point it became clear to her that more human contact could have helped her deal with her pain.


Posted Apr. 05, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
JLPen77

Join Date: 02/05/16

Posts: 362

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

Looking at her situation from outside it, it seems clear that her friends were really essential to her well-being, but that it took her a while to realize and fully appreciate that. I agree with laurap that a breakthrough there was witnessing the strength of friendship at her father's memorial service: seeing how much friendship with her father meant to his colleagues, and how that embraced her and her own family. Suddenly she saw friends not just as people who share and support your interests, but as people with whom you develop emotional bonds that sustain you on a deeper level. She does give credit to her friends in her acknowledgments, and I was glad to see that.


Posted Apr. 06, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
joanp

Join Date: 06/13/11

Posts: 102

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

I agree with most of the postings above. Helen began to heal when she recognized the importance of the people in her life. Many that are in mourning withdraw from society to deal with loss but it wasn't a good plan for Helen.


Posted Apr. 09, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
bonnieb

Join Date: 09/11/11

Posts: 132

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

Again, I appreciate all the prior comments. Towards the end of the book, Helen thanks her good friends for caring for Mabel while she is away. She realizes how important her friends are to her. Early on in the book, her depression and grief cause her to isolate and actually push her friends away. As the book ends, she becomes part of the living world and her friendships take on new meaning.


Posted Apr. 13, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
marganna

Join Date: 10/14/11

Posts: 153

RE: How important is human friendship to Helen as she travels through her grief?

From a book that I love: How to Survive the Loss of a Love, by Melba Cosgrove, Harold Bloomfield, & Peter McWilliams:
"My friends are still here:
neglected,
rejected
while I gave all my
precious moments to
you.
They're still here!
God bless them"
Friends cannot be replaced; Helen's friends didn't think she was strange, excessive, etc etc; they were there for her & probably were the most important aspect for her recovery although she couldn't see it at the moment. Mabel was all she could give "all my precious moments to"...Helen had to "be grave enough to accept the help of others" (also from above book). Friends don't judge; they are there to love & support. Helen was blessed with friends & family. She realizes this at the memorial service.


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