A gripping account of grief

Seven Angels for Seven Days: a True Story of Mystery, Grief, Healing and God’s Amazing Faithfulness Angelina Fast-Vlaar. Castle Quay Books, 2005. 247 pages.

Angelina Fast-Vlaar agrees to accompany her husband Peter to Australia. Psalm 139 provides the needed words of assurance: “God watches over us no matter where we go.”

Her diaries of that trip provide the framework for Seven Angels for Seven Days. With poetic skill, she pulls the reader along on a gripping recount of the journey.

She starts by evoking a feeling like being on the seashore. Waves of apprehension build, then dissipate. There are delightful descriptions of the people and the country as the wave recedes. As one turns from shoreline to desert, Fast-Vlaar keeps the reader uneasily aware of a storm brewing on the horizon.

The storm breaks. The desert journey ends with Peter’s death.

Journalling provides a release and opportunity for reflection. She realizes that God sent her “seven angels for seven days” in the form of caring people and unexpected details.

The fresh, raw emotions and reflections set down here are beautiful and heart-wrenching. I am no longer an observer, for Fast-Vlaar’s words now speak into my life. I see grief’s slow, painful climb from first shock and numbness to eventual acceptance and reorganization of life. Fifteen months after her husband’s death, Fast-Vlaar returns to Australia. She revisits the places and people that were so powerful in her life. She searches for the meaning of Peter’s life. She concludes, ”I have dreaded the day the tree would be bare. The day I’d say goodbye to my grief; the second death, the final farewell. Yet now, sitting here beside this brave young tree, I’m beginning to feel I can let go of my sorrow, gently, gracefully, following the example of the leaves.”

Fast-Vlaar knows the sustaining presence of God. She shares her own spiritual growth, drawing on the understanding and comfort of the Bible as well as other Christian writings. This book, which won the First-Time Canadian Christian Author award at the 2004 Word Guild conference, boldly faces the issues and process of grieving. It could be offered as a resource for grief counselling or groups.

Elaine Sanderson is an avid reader, maker of miniatures, and enthusiastic participant in MB Forum. She is a member of Sayward (B.C.) Christian Fellowship.