Listen on VoiceAmerica.com

Episode Description

A chance to finally understand the pain of separation & loss, and how to move through it awaits in this week’s Dropping In conversation. Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go begins with the sudden death of Cheryl Krauter’s spouse. Five months later, in a stroke of irony and magic, her husband wins a long-desired guided fly fishing trip in a raffle?and Cheryl decides to go in his place, fulfilling a promise to scatter his ashes by a trout stream.Part I of this memoir is an account of the first year after Cheryl’s husband’s death, where she becomes an explorer in the infinite stream of grief and loss, a time traveler between the darkness of sorrow and the light of daily life. Part II concludes with stories of the poignant and humorous adventures she had during the ensuing year. Tying it all together and woven throughout is Cheryl’s account of the creation of an altar assembled during the three-day ritual of Los Días de los Muertos.Poetic and mythological, Odyssey of Ashes is a raw story of loss and the deep transformation that traveling through darkness and returning to light can bring. Drop In with us to find out how a professional copes with the unthinkable; the sudden loss of her husband, usually the traumatic crisis for which her clients have come to her. Cheryl Krauter gives us an unblinking view of the gaping hole and the wholeness that can ensue, told through the lens of the favourite pastime of she and her late husband — fly-fishing.

Cheryl Krauter

Cheryl Krauter is an existential humanistic psychotherapist with more than forty years of experience in the field of depth psychology and human consciousness. Her background in theater arts, working with performing artists, visual artists, and creative people has inspired her work. After her cancer diagnosis in 2007, she began to focus on people who have been diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, as well as their partners, family members, and caregivers. Her two published books, Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Telling Your Cancer Story (Oxford University Press 2017) and Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide and Workbook for Providing Wholehearted Care (Oxford University Press 2018) grew out of this work. Her memoir, Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go was published on July 20, 2021 by She Writes Press.