Six Writer Friends Step In

--by summerbou, posted Apr 10, 2009

When writer Elizabeth Aleshire was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack last summer, she fully expected to recover and complete her book, 101 Ways You Can Help: How To Offer Comfort and Support To Those Who Are Grieving. But that was not to be. A second heart attack dimmed the prospect of recovery, and Ms. Aleshire expired at the age of 59 with a third of her book unwritten.

While still in the hospital, Ms. Aleshire received daily visits from six writer-friends, all of whom had met over the years at the International Women's Writing Guild's annual “Remember the Magic” summer conference at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, where Ms. Aleshire had taught in each of the past 25 years.

When it became clear that Ms. Aleshire would not recover, the six writer-friends offered to complete her manuscript posthumously. Permission was granted by both the author and her publisher, Sourcebooks, and the team went into “emergency mode” to write the unwritten chapters in time to meet the book's publication deadline. The book, 101 ways You Can Help: How To Offer Comfort And Support To Those Who Are Grieving, will be in bookstores by the end of April.

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Posted by summerbou
Apr 10, 2009
Comments (4)

Readers Comments

Spring wrote: Thankfully this important meaningful work was supported by these women, and action was taken to complete Ms. Aleshire work. Greiving is an unavoidable part of life, and I have read a very important statistic once that I never forgot about greiving and it was in affect about if you have lost a family member people where much more sympathetic, than if you are going thru a Divorce/ seperation, or if you lost your job/ changed jobs, or move to a new home, or school but the amount of grief for all of these where showed to have the same affects on a person that had lost someone--- but--- the person going thru a change other than losing someone very often did not recieve the same sympathy or understanding. Knowing this personally made me more aware of other changes that happen in our lives and to be more symathetic for people going thru a job change/ move/ separation or whatever.

Aurelia wrote: What a lovely thing they all did. I am sorry for the loss of your friend Elizabeth, but proud how you all joined together to get her book to print. :0) God Bless You... I am sure she's smiling from HEAVEN :0)
~Aurelia

Cario wrote: I've just found this website through a post my sister shared and signed up for a smile group. Your posting gave me the chills. The fact that this woman was cared for and respected by friends she had developed relationships over a long period of time who were willing to complete and publish her final work of art is truly inspiring :)

JuneBug wrote: Truely a memorable post !!! People working together...AWESOME !! :)

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