On January 11, 2017 Shaleem wrote her first poem about love and loss.
Fifteen months earlier, she married the love of her life, Brad. He was handsome, successful, fit, and fun. And more than that, he had a zest for life like none she had ever met, for he had faced childhood cancer, and knew as well as anyone how precious each day was.
On their one-year anniversary, after his sudden weight loss, they faced the worst oncology appointment anyone can face. Zero treatment options, zero percent chance of survival, 3-6 months.
The first poem written the night he died, lead to a series of poems that began to chronicle the landscape she traversed emotionally, contemplatively, and spiritually as she moved through the darkness of grief and despair toward the light of healing.
Little did she know that six years later, on the journey toward Illumination Rock to scatter their beloved dog's ashes in the same place she had scattered Brad's ashes, tragedy would strike again. This time it was her boyfriend, her new love, and yet, once again, it was fatal.
This book, Illumination a grievers journey through the darkness, is so much more than a book about grief. It is about the heart crushing, drop you to your knees experience. It is about the times when grief enters our lives with overwhelming force, consumes our thoughts, emotions, and even our physical wellbeing. It is during these times of profound sorrow that we often find ourselves searching for solace, understanding and a glimmer of hope.
As you read Illumination, you will touch upon things that will awaken your heart. You will experience a connection with this extraordinary woman, who, through her own journey, and as a poet at heart, gives fresh words to this thing called, perhaps too simply, grief.