- 128 pages - Hardcover
- Published: July 17, 2005
'Beyond the Sorrow' - The Next Phase in Recovery
Tammy Trent had it all ... a wonderful career in music ministry, a husband she adored, an all-around great life. And then, in a blink, it was gone. Trent, her husband, went on a free dive (scuba without an air tank) while they were on vacation in Jamaica ... and never returned. She called her family back home in the states and they were going to come to her side to help her get through the hardest thing she'd ever faced, but that very day was 9/11 - and all airports were shut down. Tammy had to face identifying her husband's body alone - with no one but God to help her cope and her father-in-law, who had managed to fly out on the 10th, before chaos struck here at home. If there was ever a time you would need ALL of the people closest to you, that would be it.
In her first book about her ordeal, Learning to Breathe Again, Tammy chronicles her journey, where some days it was all she could do take breath. The follow up book, Beyond the Sorrow, takes us deeper into her recovery - four years later. She's by no means "over it", but every day is a step toward full healing.
One of the Most Real Books You Will Read
Filled with personal notes, Scriptures that have helped her cope and stories from others,
Beyond the Sorrow doesn't pretend to have all of the answers. It only promises us that "There's Hope in the Promises of God." Tammy openly admits that some days she's "still very broken." She doesn't fall into the cliche' of putting on a happy face for the world simply because she's a Christian and knows that one day she'll see Trent again. While that is a huge comfort, that is sometime in the future ... and his absence today has filled her with grief and sorrow.
Tammy's honesty and her pain make this one of the most "real" books you'll read all year. The stories from friends and fans are just as real and just as bittersweet. Having suffered a tragic and sudden loss myself when my father was murdered 11 years ago, I know all about the feeling that you can't even breathe. To write down the pain, long after many well-meaning people have decided you should be "all better and over it" is hard enough, but to share it with the world is a real act of courage. To share that you still hurt makes you vunerable, but Tammy does it with grace and dignity, just as she does everything else.
