Beyond One's Own: Healing humanity in the wake of personal tragedy

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by Gabriel Constans, Ph.D.

Category: Biography/Social Activism/Grief

Explore the lives of fifteen remarkable individuals who have grieved, survived, and found renewed meaning, purpose and hope after the death of their beloved child, spouse, sibling, mother, father or grandparent.

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Book Contents

About the Author

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Ordering Information

ISBN: 1-890109-35-5
$18.95 US
Imprint: Xemplar
238 pages
trade-size paperback

The people & their stories

REG & MAGGIE GREEN donated the organs of their seven-year-old son Nicholas for transplants after he was murdered in Italy. They continue to advocate for organ donation.

ALEXANDRA MATTEUCCI founded a national anti-violence campaign after her son was hit in the head with a baseball bat and killed during a Little League game brawl.

LEE MUN WAH began Stir-Fry Productions and encounter seminars to bridge the gap between races after his mother was murdered by a man of another race. He produced the award-winning video The Color of Fear.

SYBIL ANDERSON-ADAMS has been leading bereavement groups since her husband's sudden death from an aneurysm.

NICOLA GEIGER has worked for peace, freedom, and nuclear disarmament in the U.S. and Japan since the Second World War, when her husband disappeared, and her parents and children died.

NANÉ ALEJANDREZ is the director of Barrios Unidos, a program that helps young people stay out of and leave violence and gangs. His life was transformed after many of his family members died from drugs and violence. He was featured on A & E Biography as one of three "Uncommon Americans."

HAZEL JOHNSON created an environmental action group called People for Community Recovery in her Chicago neighborhood after her husband died of cancer (which she feels was caused by surrounding pollutants). She has brought environmental racism to national attention.

LE LY HAYSLIP lost many family members during the Vietnam War, including her father. She has recorded her experiences in Between Heaven and Earth (made into a film). She founded the East Meets West Foundation.

GITTA RYLE lost her father in Auschwitz and her husband recently. She has since devoted her life to speaking about the holocaust and providing individual counseling for young people who have had a loss in the family.

JEANNE WHITE has been speaking, writing, and educating young people about HIV/AIDS since her well-known son, Ryan White, died from the syndrome.

LEAH RABIN worked tirelessly for peace in Israel and abroad after the murder of her husband, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

FAITH GIAVARAS survived an abusive relationship and the loss of her beloved grandmother. She now gives support to women in crisis.

NANCY GOODMAN BRINKER has devoted her life to finding a cure for breast cancer and increasing awareness of the disease that killed her sister, Susan G. Komen.

CANDACE LIGHTNER founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) after the murder of her daughter, Cari, by a drunk driver.

APPENDIX: ORGANIZATIONS - contact information for the organizations presented in this book.

About the Author

Gabriel Constans is a columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, has written for numerous magazines and journals in North America and Europe, and was a contributing writer, along with Maya Angelou, to You the Writer by Guth and Rico and From Eulogy to Joy by Cynthia Beischel. His previous books include two on grief and loss for teens, Just A Heartbeat Away and Picking Up The Pieces; ninety healthy drinks in Great American Smoothies; a romance, Heart Shadows; a variety of children's stories, Itchy Feet; and a collection of one-acts entitled The Goddess of Cancer and Other Plays. (Most of these are available through Amazon.com.)

He works at The Center for Grief and Loss at Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz County, where he was a founding member in 1977. His past experience includes time as a chaplain at a community hospital, a program manager for an innovative mental health center, and drug and alcohol treatment for teenagers and convicts. His Doctorate is in Death Education.

Dr. Constans lives with his partner, Audrey, in Santa Cruz, California where they are co-parents to "five fabulous children, three picky chickens, two bubbly fish and a large furry lap-cat named Eggy (whose mother's name was Chicken)."

The author can be reached through www.gogabriel.com.