BLACKSBURG, Va., March 8, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- There is arguably no greater pain an adult can endure than the grief that comes from losing a child. A trauma of this magnitude can crumble lives, destroy relationships and deplete the will to live. Ronald J. Knapp, Ph.D., takes an intimate look at the issue through the eyes of those who have experienced it in his new book, Beyond Endurance: When a Child Dies, 2nd Edition (now available through AuthorHouse).
Knapp interviewed more than 155 families who experienced the loss of a child to determine how they coped or failed to cope. He spent three to four hours with each to conduct personal, detailed interviews. Knapp himself became "a participant observer" in his quest to document these sociological situations.
"By sharing these intimate moments I came to feel and experience, in a vicarious sort of way, the intensity of the emotions expressed. Although I have never lost a child, and I was still an outsider in the total process, nevertheless, I could sense how it must be to live through the agony, horror, sorrow and pain," Knapp says.
These emotions are what he tried to convey through Beyond Endurance. Throughout his examination of three types of death, illness, accidental or unexpected and murder, he injects excerpts taken from the mouths of survivors as he attempts to get into their minds and tell the real story of precisely what happens when a child dies. The book presents the results of his research and sheds light on constructive measures for responding to tragedy while calling attention to the special needs of surviving family.
For parents struggling with the death of a child, those who help survivors recover or anyone interested in exploring the depths of this traumatic topic, Beyond Endurance dives to the heart of this terrible issue with compassion and empathy.
Knapp is alumni professor emeritus of sociology Clemson University who specialized in the social aspects of death and dying. He is also the author of Motherhood and Mourning: Perinatal Death.
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