Losing Jonathan

When Bob and Linda Waxler received a phone call warning them their beloved and accomplished son Jonathan was taking heroin, they began a journey that took them through the detox hospitals and halfway houses of America. But the second call a year later, from the medical examiner in San Francisco, informing them that Jonathan had died, plunged them into the deep darkness--a long, lonely journey into the center of themselves. Their task was to survive in a world that would never again be the same, and they did survive and even triumph, incorporating Jonathan into their lives not as a lost son, but as a living spirit who is with them in a new way.

Written with unexpected humor and great warmth, The Widower's Notebook is a portrait of a marriage, an account of the complexities of finding oneself single again after losing your spouse, and a story of the enduring power of familial love. "This is deeply moving ... beautifully written and modulated, with a dollop of droll, black humor. It is such an achievement, like running uphill against a strong wind."--Joyce Carol Oates On a summer day in New York Jonathan Santlofer discovers his wife, Joy, gasping for breath on their living room couch. After a frenzied 911 call, an ambulance race across Manhattan, and hours pacing in a hospital waiting room, a doctor finally delivers the fateful news. Consumed by grief, Jonathan desperately tries to pursue life as he always had--writing, social engagements, and working on his art--but finds it nearly impossible to admit his deep feelings of loss to anyone, not even his to beloved daughter, Doria, or to himself. As Jonathan grieves and heals, he tries to unravel what happened to Joy, a journey that will take him nearly two years.

Jonathan's Legacy returns to the roots of the Jonathan Trilogy: the love for those weakest amongst us, children, particularly the undesired ones, street kids who find new homes and love, just as Jonathan and Dan once had, in their youth. We follow the Jackson family, founded by Jonathan and Dan, as they grapple with the loss of their family patriarch. Parker and Cody set out to start a patchwork family of their own, while Marc comes to terms with his loss. And who is Kim Hwan? This is the third and final book in this accidental trilogy, a book written out of the desperate search for answers, to bring hope where there was only despair, and to find much-needed closure. Anything but a happily ever after is unimaginable. In this trilogy: Jonathan's Hope (Book 1) Jonathan's Promise (Book 2) Jonathan's Legacy (Book 3)

Mostly know for his play ´Miss Margarida´s Way´, presented on Broadway starring Estelle Parsons and produced in more than 30 countries, Brazilian author Roberto Athayde writes both in English and Portuguese. ´Jonathan’s Friend´ is a novel inspired by the author´s own experience as a foreign student in the US. The narrator, Armando, is a composition major at the the Music School of the University of Michigan in the spring of 1969. He is in the process of giving up music for writing. He finds out that a certain young composer is supposed to be in love with Jonathan, the best violinist in the music school, and that his passion is not reciprocated. Armando figures that such story might be just what he needs to get on with his fiction. He strikes a friendship with the unhappy composer. But, instead of merely finding material for a short story, the sensual Armando falls hopelessly in love with Jonathan’s friend. ´Jonathan’s Friend´ is a novel of budding passion played out amidst the notes of classical music. It was written by Roberto Athayde when the author was nineteen years old and has been withheld for more than thirty years.

In a powerful and provocative memoir, a renowned addiction medicine physician describes how he experienced the same phantom pains in the same places that his twin brother Jonathan did before he died and its devastating repercussions for his own life. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Description The author tragically lost her young son Jonathan, aged 11, in an accident involving unsafe goalposts in January 1991. Since that time she has campaigned, fiercely and tirelessly to make football a safe game for other children to play and her campaign has involved her in meetings with Sports Ministers, Football Association Managers, Members of Parliament, and Television, Radio, and Newspaper interviews. Until this tragedy nobody would have believed the strength she has to fight. During this campaign her efforts have involved such heartache because each time she thought that legislation on safety was in sight another tragedy involving unsafe goalposts occurred and she addressed the hurt that other parents were feeling when another 10 children, in the UK alone, died in separate incidents due to unsafe goalposts. Each time she again went through the empathetic pain of losing her much loved son. Whilst coping with the campaign the author gave birth to Laura, a severely disabled little girl, who became the "Light of her Life." Her book charts Laura's progress from her initial diagnosis, and the doctor's assessment that Laura would never walk or talk, through to her teenage years. The author's fighting spirit and that of her family, along with Laura's tenacity to prove everybody wrong on so many occasions, has won through and the book tells how she has worked so hard to make Laura's life the very best it can be. This lovely, happy little girl is at the centre of what is a real, loving family and the book itself is Laura's story. It is a very inspiring read, especially to anyone who has received the devastating news that their child is not the perfect little person they expected them to be. About the Author Mrs Brenda Smith is 53 and the mother of an autistic child with complex special needs. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and is employed as a Clerical Assistant with the Civil Service. Brenda lost her young son in a tragic accident involving unsafe goalposts and has campaigned for 15 years to try to get legislation in place for all goalposts to be safe in an effort to protect other children. She had lost a much loved child and been given a child that needed so much care and attention, and she always will. Brenda enjoyed writing the book and feels that if she had read a similar book it would have given her the strength and hope that she needed after she heard the news that Laura had such complex special needs.

"A British champion discusses the most common causes of disaster in chess"--Cover.

What is like to live without touch or movement/position sense (proprioception)? The only way to understand the importance of these senses, so familiar we cannot imagine their absence, is to ask someone in that position. Ian Waterman lost them below the neck over forty years ago, though pain and temperature perception and his peripheral movement nerves were unaffected. Without proprioceptive feedback and touch the movement brain was disabled. Completely unable to move, he felt disembodied and frightened. Then, slowly, he taught himself to dress, eat and walk by thinking about each movement and with visual supervision. In Losing Touch, the narrative moves between biography and scientific research, theatre, documentary and zero gravity. He has been married three times, and built up successful careers in disability access audit, using his impairment to his advantage, and in rare turkey breeding and journalism. The neuroscience has led to data on movement without feedback, the pleasantness of touch, gesture, pain and body orientation in space. The account shows how the science was actually done but also reveals Ian's journey from passive subject to informed critic of science and scientists and that the science has given him both more understanding but also greater confidence personally. His unique response to such a rare condition has also led to a BBC documentary, theatrical portrayals and a weightless flight with NASA. As a young man he sought triumph over his impairment; now, nearly 65, he has more mature reflections on living with such an extraordinary loss, the limits it has imposed and the opportunities it has enabled. He gives his views on scientists and on others he has met including Oliver Sacks and Peter Brook. In an Afterword those from science, the arts and philosophy give an appreciation of his contribution. The book is the result of nearly 30 years close collaboration between author and subject.