Review: "Walking Through Twilight"

 

Walking Through Twilight: A Wife’s Illness – A Philosopher’s Lament by Douglas Groothuis.

This is a remembrance of “waiting” (7).  Groothius remembers the joy of his life living with his wife, Becky, and her diagnosis with “a rare form of dementia, called primary progressive aphasia (PPA)” (9).

This book is a “walking through twilight” – not darkness.  Groothius alternates between telling about their life together before she became ill, her deterioration due to the disease, and reflections on what it means to be a Christian and a Philosopher in the face of what Becky was becoming through the progression of the disease. 

He takes the reader through this twilight, but not into the darkness of her death. He wants to share his lament for her as she suffers.  He wants to lead the reader through this lament so the reader will consider what this all means to be beings that are returning to dust – to prepare the reader for his time of lament.

Like Job before God’s questioning, as I read, I put my hand over my mouth. Groothius’ lament made me think about my life and others who have and who are walking through their own twilight – and how best to lament. 

I highly recommend this book for slow reflection.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com].