The Permanent Piece of the Puzzle

Book excerpt: Christine, five years ago, lost her husband, Rob, suddenly in a car wreck. She felt like their puzzle of life had fallen off the table, and all the pieces were scattered. Five years after her husband's death, she has picked up the pieces and started putting the pieces back in her puzzle. Some pieces were the same, and some pieces didn't fit. The one thing that did remain the same was the border pieces that were God. His pieces never change, even though your picture of the puzzle does. Their best friends, Tracie and Russ, were there for her in her loss. Now Tracie has passed on, and she is there for Russ, helping him find his pieces of his new puzzle of life. In her effort to help him, difficulties arise, and her life takes a new turn. "On February 16, 2015, I left my husband of twenty-three years at the rehab to go take care of our elderly cat at our house for several hours. While I was gone I received a call from the rehab that he had quit breathing. I rushed back to the rehab, and when I arrived, I was met at the door by a rehab worker saying that he had passed away. I had just talked to him about making coming-home plans, and now I was making funeral plans. I am a writer, so in my lonely hours at night, I turned to my pen and paper and wrote down my feelings. Out of my writings came a book called Peeling the Onion of Grief. It is a collection of short writings and poems of my journey after losing my husband. These writings are about my journey I experienced from the time of my husband's death up to the present date. Last summer of 2017, God brought to me, the fictional story Permanent Piece of the Puzzle. I used several of my writings in the story by my characters. The emotions are real because I have personally walked through the grief and it was these writings that God instilled in my heart during the journey that helped me down this road. These writings can be found in full content after the story. It is my prayer that my words will encourage others that are going down the same road that I walked down."