Life after you : a mother's true story of life after loss

Overview: ‘He crashed on to the pillow next to me, heavy as a felled oak. I slapped His face and told Him to wake up. Our daughter, B, appeared in the doorway, woken up by the screaming – I must have been screaming but I don't remember – and she was crying and peering in. I told her the ultimate adult lie; that everything was all right.' Lucie is 37. She is the mother of a young daughter. And she is a widow. Her husband, Mark, died suddenly at the age of just 37. There wasn't even time to say goodbye. This book, inspired by her award-winning blog Wife After Death, is the story of her grief, and how she is (and isn't) coming to terms with Mark's death, and bringing up their daughter on her own. On the evening of February 11, 2012, just before Take Me Out was due to start, Lucie Brownlee's 37-year-old husband Mark said, Let's go to bed. Mid way through intercourse, he dropped dead on the pillow beside her. Lucie's candid memoir charts her first two years of widowhood. (Bereavement lore states that the first year is the hardest and subsequent years get progressively easier. She has found this not to be the case). Her story bears witness to first birthdays, first dates and inappropriate liaisons with a plumber, as well as posers such as, 'Does this mean I can finally ditch the in-laws?' (Probably not yet). She never loses her sense of humour (perhaps it was a good thing that her husband, recruited as a linguist by GCHQ, had never told her about his work?). But as the two-year anniversary approaches, can she bear to scatter the ashes - in Spain - as planned? This book is a roller-coaster ride through the highs and lows of negotiating the 'new normal' and addresses the warty underbelly of widowhood; the drinking, the recklessness, and the feelings of inadequacy as a single mother to a young child. 'He crashed on to the pillow next to me, heavy as a felled oak. I slapped His face and told Him to wake up. Our daughter, B, appeared in the doorway, woken up by the screaming – I must have been screaming but I don't remember – and she was crying and peering in. I told her the ultimate adult lie; that everything was all right.' Sudden death is rude. It just wanders in and takes your husband without any warning; it doesn't even have the decency to knock. At the impossibly young age of 37, as they were making love one night, Lucie Brownlee's beloved husband Mark dropped dead. As Lucie tried to make sense of her new life – the one she never thought she would be living – she turned to writing to express her grief. Life After You is the stunning, irreverent and heartbreakingly honest result. 'He crashed on to the pillow next to me, heavy as a felled oak. I slapped His face and told Him to wake up. Our daughter, B, appeared in the doorway, woken up by the screaming - I must have been screaming but I don't remember - and she was crying and peering in. I told her the ultimate adult lie; that everything was all right.' Sudden death is rude. It just wanders in and takes your husband without any warning; it doesn't even have the decency to knock. At the impossibly young age of 37, as they were making love one night, Lucie Brownlee's beloved husband Mark dropped dead. As Lucie tried to make sense of her new life - the one she never thought she would be living - she turned to writing to express her grief. Me After You is the stunning, irreverent and heartbreakingly honest result