The Third Star: Poems

By Jody Farrell

The death of one's child is an experience all parents fear. This fear became reality for poet Jody Farrell. Jody's son, Steve, died at age 38 from AIDS. He had contracted the retrovirus sometime in 1979, before the international medical community had isolated and identified the virus responsible for the alarming rise of previously rarely-seen and deadly maladies striking gay men in the early '80s. Steve's had been a beautiful life of extraordinary good health, athleticism, and amazing professional achievements. Steve remained healthy and strong; hiking, camping, riding his racing bicycle a hundred miles a day and working in the burgeoning computer industry until mid-1989 when his T-cell count plummeted below 200 and he was diagnosed with the onset of AIDS. His decline was rapid and his death came in October of that year. His mother, Jody, nursed and cared for him through this time. In her grief, Jody processed her pain through writing and sharing her experience with others. Her beautiful poems, stark, honest, and poignant, tell of how a mother survives the loss of her beloved child.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0692606424
• ISBN13: 9780692606421
• Release Date: May 2016
• Publisher: Armsmere Press
• Length: 68 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"