Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

A successful radiologist and elite athlete, Dr. Dave tended to the blistered feet of strangers on racecourses and gave away many of his trophies. He was appreciated for his generosity and camaraderie with family, friends, colleagues, and adventure-racing teammates, the latter of whom usually accompanied him on excursions. But he embarked on his final pursuit alone-an attempt to summit all fifty-four of the fourteeners in Colorado-and made an unknowable error that caused him to fall two hundred feet to his death.

When people learned that he had died, they often asked his sister, the only girl and the baby of the family, "Were you close?" The question, seemingly straightforward, haunted her and begged for a deeper answer, requiring an exploration that took a decade. She invites the reader along on her own journey as she searches for a greater understanding about who her brother was, why his passions were worth risking everything, and how to carry on in the world and in her family without him, ultimately becoming even closer to him in death than in life.

Were You Close? challenges the cultural notion that the bereaved can or should simply "get over" their losses, illustrating that integrating these experiences can actually help a mourner not just heal, but move forward with clarified purpose.

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Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

A successful radiologist and elite athlete, Dr. Dave tended to the blistered feet of strangers on racecourses and gave away many of his trophies. He was appreciated for his generosity and camaraderie with family, friends, colleagues, and adventure-racing teammates, the latter of whom usually accompanied him on excursions. But he embarked on his final pursuit alone-an attempt to summit all fifty-four of the fourteeners in Colorado-and made an unknowable error that caused him to fall two hundred feet to his death.

When people learned that he had died, they often asked his sister, the only girl and the baby of the family, "Were you close?" The question, seemingly straightforward, haunted her and begged for a deeper answer, requiring an exploration that took a decade. She invites the reader along on her own journey as she searches for a greater understanding about who her brother was, why his passions were worth risking everything, and how to carry on in the world and in her family without him, ultimately becoming even closer to him in death than in life.

Were You Close? challenges the cultural notion that the bereaved can or should simply "get over" their losses, illustrating that integrating these experiences can actually help a mourner not just heal, but move forward with clarified purpose.

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Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

by Anne Pinkerton
Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

Were You Close?: A sister's quest to know the brother she lost

by Anne Pinkerton

Paperback

$17.99 
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Overview

A successful radiologist and elite athlete, Dr. Dave tended to the blistered feet of strangers on racecourses and gave away many of his trophies. He was appreciated for his generosity and camaraderie with family, friends, colleagues, and adventure-racing teammates, the latter of whom usually accompanied him on excursions. But he embarked on his final pursuit alone-an attempt to summit all fifty-four of the fourteeners in Colorado-and made an unknowable error that caused him to fall two hundred feet to his death.

When people learned that he had died, they often asked his sister, the only girl and the baby of the family, "Were you close?" The question, seemingly straightforward, haunted her and begged for a deeper answer, requiring an exploration that took a decade. She invites the reader along on her own journey as she searches for a greater understanding about who her brother was, why his passions were worth risking everything, and how to carry on in the world and in her family without him, ultimately becoming even closer to him in death than in life.

Were You Close? challenges the cultural notion that the bereaved can or should simply "get over" their losses, illustrating that integrating these experiences can actually help a mourner not just heal, but move forward with clarified purpose.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9783988320001
Publisher: Vine Leaves Press
Publication date: 04/04/2023
Pages: 258
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Anne Pinkerton studied poetry at Hampshire College and received an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bay Path University. Her writing often focuses on making sense of challenging life experiences; significant themes include loss, illness, grief, and coping. She has been published in Modern Loss, Hippocampus Magazine, Entropy, Ars Medica, Lunch Ticket, The Bark, the anthology The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink, and elsewhere. 'Were You Close?' was a semi-finalist for the 2019 River Teeth Book Prize. Pinkerton lives in western Massachusetts where she works as a marketing communications professional. Visit AnnePinkertonWriter.com
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