Grief Denied: A Vietnam Widow's Story

By Pauline Laurent

The experience of this book is monumental in every way. Pauline's incredible strength and perservance in facing her grief head-on and her ability to so completely transform her pain into beauty is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967142407
• ISBN13: 9780967142401
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Catalyst for Change
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Finally, there is someone who speaks my language

Pauline's account of her early days of being a young military war widow and pregnant with the child that will never meet her father touched me to the deepest part of my soul. It was the first, and only, account of what my world was like and spoke a language I thought no one knew. Her message of denying grief is strong and resounding, most with personal antidotes, struggles and triumphs. I recommend this book to any and every person that either experiences first hand the life of a military widow or knows a person who is walking the path of widowhood alone.

"Grief Denied: A Vietnam Widow's Story"

I was so touched by the reading of this book, that I cried like a baby for the first time since I returned back from Vietnam. I was there myself and knew many men, such as Pauline's husband. I just never realized how much grief and stress that those left behind had suffered. Pauline is an example of someone who has had to learn how to cope and deal with the death of her husband, without any road maps. She lead with her heart and let her emotions take her to places she had never visited before. She allows us to take that journey of her spirit, though the pages of this wonderfully, well written, book of her emotional expereinces. I could not put this book down once I began - not until I reached and read the final word on the last page. I highly recommend buying and reading of this book. It will move you in ways you thought possible.

Grief Denied

Book that shows soul and expresses real emotions from the heart. I was touched by the feelings the book brought up and the emotions I feel. I hope this writer continues to write and share form the heart. Thank You Pauline Laurent

Courageous and long overdue

Pauline Laurent's beautifully written "Grief Denied- A Vietnam Widow's Story" is a brave gift to a country that needs to look at the long-term traumatic effects on loved ones of those who answered the call to Vietnam. As a former wife of a Vietnam veteran who physically survived the war, but was scarred mentally and emotionally, I have longed for books that tell of the trauma behind closed doors on American soil, long after the end of the Vietnam war. Sadly, I have found very little written on the subject. I used to think I was alone in the madness of grief and confusion. Thanks to Pauline Laurent, I know there are many others out there who have suffered similar experiences, with no recognition. It is time for America to wake up, look at the ugly aftermath and acknowledge it. There has been too much shame born by those of us directly affected by Nam. I thank and applaud Pauline for adding a most important work to the "women on the homefront" point of view. It is high time we give credit to those women who have paid a high price for loving Vietnam vets!

A Must Read

"Pauline Laurent's Grief Denied, A Vietnam Widow's Story is a must read for all of us who in some way experienced the Vietnam War. As a combat veteran who survived the war, I had never considered, much less appreciated what the loved ones of those killed in action have gone through. Pauline's compelling story takes the reader from an innocent war bride, to a young overwhelmed war widow, filled with the unborn child of her first love, through the depths of self-doubt and depression to emerge finally as a complete person secure in her womanhood. We can all benefit from reading Pauline's story as she takes us on the ride of her life, sometimes gently, sometimes shockingly, but always gripping. Every American will benefit from reading this experience of a war bride turned war widow and the struggles she encounters being both mother and father to the most important thing left behind by her war hero husband who died leading his fellow soldiers across a bridge in Gia Dinh province on May 10, 1968."