Timmy's Christmas Surprise

Timmy’s Christmas Surprise:
A Sweet Story for Those Who Grieve
 

By Karla Wheeler
Illustrated by Jenny Lee Wheeler
 

Includes Bereavement Tips for the Holidays

2001 • 26 pp
Paperback • ISBN: 0 9675532 0 2 • $4.95
[$5.95 in Canada] • Hospice Price $.99

Timmy's Christmas Surprise is a delightfully warm children's book that is based on a true story of a family that is grieving the death of their cat, Timmy. Dad is especially sad, and his daughters find a sweet way to ease their father's grief.

The book:

• Validates that grief is a process, not an event
• Validates that when someone we love -- a person or a pet -- is gone from our sight, we might find we miss them most during the Holiday Season
• Offers parents and other grownups some bereavement tips for the holidays
• Suggests that readers contact their local hospice and palliative care organization to learn of grief support programs available in their community

Hospices are finding the book appropriate for:

• Pet therapy programs
• Bereavement outreach programs during the Holiday Season
• Inexpensive, heartfelt Christmas gifts for staff and volunteers
• Other heartfelt goodwill gestures this Holiday Season

“...gently invites readers to acknowledge their grief so they can grow from it.”

“Loss is a universal experience.  So is grief.  Karla Wheeler, with the help of her daughter Jenny Lee in Heart-Shaped Pickles and Timmy’s Christmas Surprise, ever so gently invites readers to acknowledge their own grief so they can grow from it.  We aren’t expected to be grateful for the losses of our lives, but we can be grateful to have learned what grief is and how to accommodate it. In many instances, how to cherish it, in fact. Wheeler is a great teacher, making us better able to accept those inevitabilities that await each one of us. "
—Karen Casey, Ph.D., author of Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow and other books for those on a spiritual journey (www.womens-spirituality.com)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR : Karla Wheeler is a former newspaper reporter and editor whose social mission as a journalist is to help ease the way for those served by hospices worldwide. She is the author of several gentle grief support books and leads the editorial team at Quality of Life Publishing Co.