Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir

Breathtaking and exquisite.Five months ago, my husband and I lost our six-week-old son, Samson, in the deceitful safety of the emergency room of a children's hospital. It was the middle of the night, and we had taken him in for what we thought was going to be a sleepy, routine check. One moment he was contently dozing in my arms, and then suddenly he stirred and hell came rudely barging its way into our safe little waiting room. The next time I got to hold him he was already gone.The trauma from that night still replays in my mind over, and over, and over. And over.Which brings me to this book. It's magnificent. It's crushing. It's crystal clear. And it is so needed. If you've lost a child...I am so sorry. Read this book, if you can. You'll feel so beautifully "told", as Jayson Greene recently put it in an interview.If you, thank God, have not lost a child, please—read this book. The loved ones in your life who have had to or may one day be forced to face this version of the impossible will need you to be able to stare straight into with them when it comes barreling so unwelcomely through their own door.We only grieve so deeply because we love so deeply. We shouldn't ever shy away from something so beautiful.***an update***To the person who said this book was too exploitative, too personal, and too well-remembered to be fully believable, I would like to say, first of all, I am so, achingly sorry for the loss of your daughter, and for your pain. No one should have to experience it. No one.It is true, however, that everyone grieves differently. For many people, this is the kind of experience that turns into a blur of unrecognizable pain. For others, every detail is searingly vivid. There are many ways to cope, and some cope by writing. Like Greene, that is how I cope. I remember, clearly, like I'm still stuck standing there, so many moments surrounding the death of my son. Others, like you mention, are a total blur, but as I've journaled through many of them, as a means of understanding and surviving it, the ones that stayed will forever be engrained. Some things I write to share. Some things I write to keep for myself. It is personal, but it can also be universal. As is love.I'm sorry that this book seems to have been one of those painful triggers for you that hurt more than they help. Those things are so unpredictable for everyone, and so different. For me, reading (and I imagine for Greene, writing) this book was deeply cathartic. And I think, respectfully, for anyone to allude that Jayson's telling of his own story was done in a way that was anything but a sincere, sacred tribute to his beloved baby daughter and wife and son is unfair, unkind, and missing the mark. Sometimes, sacred things should be shared, for the exalting ability they have to help us learn from them.To not share is your choice, and it is the right choice. But to share is his choice, too. And it also is right. I, for one, am so grateful he did.

I knew from the beginning that this memoir would be devastatingly sad, and questioned if I would be able to read this book because of the fact that any book that deals with the death of a child is so difficult and painful to read about.However, although what happened to Jayson Greene's daughter, Greta, is tragic, Greene is able to share the story of her life: memories of things Greta used to say, her favorite dress, her lack of hair in a way that kept me reading because I wanted to know Greta in the way he had had known her.Greene has written this book after Greta's death, and we see how he and his wife, Stacy, cope with their loss, as well as the way other members of their family cope. And eventually we see how Greene and his wife ultimately want to be parents and miss the joy a child brings to their life.The writing is beautiful and even in the midst of great sadness, there is also great hope in this memoir. I want everyone to pick this memoir up and devour it like I did.

My husband and I lost our three year old daughter very suddenly, 36 years ago. I have read more than my share of books about the loss of a child. Not one has come close to describing the devastating pain and sorrow we experienced, until now. Jason Greene captured the shock and ineffable sorrow beautifully, along with the long and profound process of healing that can come. I am grateful to have discovered this important book.

This memoir is one of the most amazing books I have read in a long time. Told from the perspective of Jayson Greene, the father of two year old Greta, the book catalogues a two year journey following the tragic and untimely death of his daughter. The prose is beautiful and the author is incredibly transparent in describing the grieving process that he, his wife and the grandparents experience.The book is deeply moving without wallowing in emotional melodrama. It is starkly human in its revelations and inspiring as this couple navigate their way through the healing process, keeping their marriage intact and even stronger than before the accident. The love for their daughter and each other is present in each chapter.I highly recommend this book. It is not light reading, but well worth investing your time.

I’ve been looking forward to reading Jaysons memoir since reading his essay about Greta in the New York Times. It’s devastatingly beautiful. I’m just upset I finished it in one day. Jayson, I will never forget Greta. What a gorgeous legacy you have created. Much love to you, Stacy and Harrison.

As a mother who lost her daughter very tragically at age 22, I find it very hard to believe that Jayson Green remembered so many details about the circumstances before and the aftermath ofthe earth shattering and devastating event that occurred to his daughter. Believe me, I feel your pain as I feel it myself. And sorry to say, it will never leave you. My mindset was very differentafter my tragic event. It was like my brain turned off. I, to this daydo not remember the funeral, the days preceding the funeral and days after. It’s all a fog. I do remember the night it happened in every horrible detail, but sorry, I would not share any of it in such a public way. As a writer, that’s your job and write you did. I found the book to be exploitive and too highly personal to be read byanyone but you and your wife.

Greene’s narrative which takes us through the agony of parent grief is so delicately but compellingly written that one feels one has travelled a little of the road he has, had our souls scoured by the pain but also experience the extraordinary miracle of human recovery and continuity in the face of such an event. Luminous. A MUST READ. Dont shy away because it is painful. Expand your own soul by following Greene’s journey.

I want to say thank you to the author for writing this book. It is beautiful, heartwrenching, deeply, deeply profound. Extraordinary.

Such a touching, well written tribute to a little daughter lost so soon. I was gripped by the way in which a father told his story so tenderly, yet graphically.

A stunning, inspirational book!

I cried many times reading this. The raw grief and true emotion shines from the pages. Greta must be so proud!