The Suitcase & The Jar: Travels With a Daughter’s Ashes

The Suitcase & The Jar: Travels With a Daughter’s Ashes
$22.95$19.47Audiobook: $24.99
Author:
Publisher: Caitlin Press
Publication Year: 2018
Format: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Narrator: Andrea Child
ASIN: 1987915747
ISBN: 9781987915747

What if grief renders you homeless?

In 2010 a brain tumour took the life of Becky Livingston's daughter, Rachel. Twenty-three years old and an avid traveller, it was her dying wish to keep traveling.

Eighteen months later, still reeling from her loss, Livingston sets off overseas, alone, untethered, and determined to continue her daughter's journey. She felt certain that seeing the world through Rachel's eyes would bring her some peace.

In her suitcase - Rachel's ashes, heavy but compact travelled with her.

With no agenda or timeline, Livingston travelled the world for twenty-six months - Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, India, England, Ireland and North America - leaving her daughter's ashes wherever she went. It was a ritual. Merging her daughter's soul with the elements, Livingston gradually finds points of belonging for them both.

THE SUITCASE AND THE JAR explores an intensely personal yet universal experience; how one navigates the terrain of sorrow. It is a story of a mother's transformative journey through grief; a story of surrender, dislocation and belonging that will speak to anyone who has ever lost someone they love.

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About the Book

Endorsements
Becky Livingston’s travelogue of grief is tender, searing and seeded with hard-won bits of wisdom. Joy is possible in the world of grief, she tells us. Claim it. This is a book not only about surviving profound loss, but about relearning how to embrace life fully.
– —Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank, and Under the Wide and Starry Sky
The Suitcase & The Jar is not simply another book about loss. It is an invitation; an illumination into the complexities of love. A fine intelligence moves through these pages. There is no false sentiment here. Livingston articulates grief with a writer’s keen eye. She shows us not a way through loss, but a way in. What more can one ask of a book about grief?
– —Eve Joseph, author of In the Slender Margin.
What an honour to be invited to travel alongside Becky Livingston as she deftly navigates the daunting terrain of grief and loss. Carrying our stories can feel like painfully heavy baggage. Becky’s journey is literally one of lessening her load, while the uncharted territory she explores begins to heal her heart. A writing style that is rich, warm and honest left me not wanting her travels to end. The Suitcase & the Jar helps us understand that when we fully experience the loss of someone we love deeply, we discover a part of ourselves.
– —Katy Hutchinson, author of Walking After Midnight.
Honest, heartbreaking and brave. Becky Livingston’s The Suitcase and the Jar is both poignant and profound. I would recommend this for anyone who has lost someone or knows someone who has. It’s a guide to grief—to take the time you need and be brave enough to stray from convention.
– —Shannon Leone Fowler, author of Traveling With Ghosts
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About the Author
Becky Livingston

Becky Livingston is the author of the memoir The Suitcase & The Jar: Travels with a Daughter’s Ashes.

Born and raised in England, she immigrated to Canada at aged 24, and lived in Vancouver, BC where she raised her two daughters. Becky has worked in business, teaching, peer counseling, house sitting, and retreat leadership. Read More

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