10 of those

Silent Cries

I’ve not experienced the horrors of losing a child. It’s not something I can even imagine, so I can’t speak much into that pain. However, I have the privilege of knowing Jonny and Joanna Ivey (and their children), and have been a part of their church family for some years now. This is a heavy and painful book to read. Not just because I know the Iveys and it’s hard to learn about your friends’ pain. It’s just a very hard topic. And here it is covered in frank and brutal honesty. Jonny and Joanna don’t shy away from sharing the chilling, disturbing, horrifying reality of losing a child. There are no easy solutions, and they don’t try to offer any. What is offered is understanding – we’ve been there and we know – along with hope, future hope – this isn’t the end, not the REAL end. I wish I had read something like this before the Iveys had lost their beautiful daughter Edith. Perhaps I, and others, would have known how to love them better if we had. For now, I’m glad to have a copy of this on my shelf, and I’m glad to have read it. Maybe, one day, I’ll find somebody else who needs to know that they’re not alone in the darkness of baby loss. On that day, maybe I’ll be able to give them this book, or at least I’ll be able to love them better for having learnt from Jonny and Joanna’s honesty. This door throws wide open the doors that often keep these things out of our discussions – especially in church. It’s hard to read, no doubt. But it’s much needed, and full of rich, deep hope, alongside astonishing vulnerability.

Ben Moore