When the House Falls Silent

The funeral was not the hard part.The hard part is the eighth month, when the casseroles have stopped, and the telephone has gone quiet, and a man who has run a business for thirty years cannot make himself get out of the truck at the grocery store.Dr. Douglas Reece writes as both a widower and a pastor, and he refuses to do either job at a safe distance. He knows the hour a man dreads. He knows the accusation that arrives at three in the morning. He also knows what Scripture actually says about it, which is far more honest and far less tidy than what usually gets offered at a graveside.When the House Falls Silent is written for the man nobody checks on. Widows are surrounded. Widowers are admired for their composure and left alone, and they are dying at a measurable rate for it. This book sits down across from that man and says the true thing.Fourteen chapters take up what the first years actually contain. The empty house at dusk. Guilt over the last conversation. Anger at God that a serious Christian is afraid to voice. A body that has stopped sleeping. Adult children who are grieving a different woman than the one you married. The folder of unopened mail on the dining table. The question of another marriage, which everyone has an opinion about, and no one will discuss with you.Every chapter opens with Scripture, works through a passage at length, tells the story of a real man, and ends with counsel small enough to attempt this week. Three appendices follow: one written for friends, pastors, and adult children who want to help but do not know how; one of prayers for particular hours, including those at three in the morning; and a ninety-day reading plan through the Psalms.There is no timetable here, and no promise that grief will end on schedule. There is a path, and the assurance that the God who carried you through the marriage, the illness, and the burial has not left the house.