If you're looking for a good book to curl up with on a chilly autumn night, I have the perfect suggestion for you: The Legacy Letters by Carew Papritz. This remarkable book will take you by the hand and lead you on a gentle and inspiring journey through the deepest thoughts and most tender emotions of a dying man during his final days.
The book consists of a series of letters written by its central character to his unborn children and estranged wife as he spends his waning hours alone in a remote cabin, contemplating life and love. The subjects of his letters, which he has planned to be delivered to his twin children on their 10th birthday, vary from pragmatic fatherly advice to poetic musings on the meaning of life. The result is a practical, moral and spiritual guidebook that speaks to every reader: young and old, parent and child, lover and lonely one alike.
Using a series of letters to tell the main character's story is a brilliant mechanism that works particularly well in this scenario because of his compelling reason for writing the letters: a deep desire to be a father to the children he will never know and to redeem his lost love for his distanced wife.
As we read letter after letter we are allowed to see more and more clearly into the heart and soul of this man, whose approaching death is revealing to him, with more and more clarity, the beauty and preciousness of life. When the letters draw to a close we grieve with him over all that will be lost with his death and, at the same time, marvel with him at the sheer radiance of this gift of life:
How utterly, utterly small we are under this magnificent star canopy. My God, what a sensation to be an atom in the scheme of such grandiosity. The allurement, the jazz, and the physics of it all. And how well love reigns under and over this convergence of infinity, all, and everything. My God, what wonders we must behold before we go. To be awakened. And so awake.
The Legacy Letters offers the reader an exquisite, intimate, passionate, humorous and genuine experience of the final days of one man's life. But ultimately it provides inspiration and guidance for living a deeply meaningful life -- every day -- for all the days of one's existence. Carew Papritz has used his considerable writing talent to pen a story that entertains and enlightens, intrigues and inspires, charms and catalyzes change for every reader.
Read The Legacy Letters aloud with your loved ones of any age and use the letters to stimulate conversations about your own life wisdom and all the lessons you have learned, big and small. Let it remind you of what you have always known but may have lost touch with in the hurriedness of daily life - the simple beauty of being awake in every moment, taking in everything that life has to offer. You will cherish every word of this book, just as it guides you to cherish every aspect of your beautiful, miraculous life.
For more by Karen M. Wyatt, M.D., click here.
For more on death and dying, click here.