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Description edit
A remarkable memoir that shows the capacity of the human heart to heal after the challenge of having to say goodbye. Even the hardest lessons contain great gifts. Jim Beaver and his wife Cecily Adams appeared to have it all-following years of fertility treatments, they were finally... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Cecily Adams: Cecily Adams is the daughter of comic actor Don Adams and singer Adelaide Efantis, and the sister of actress/TV executive Stacey Adams. She was married to actor/writer Jim Beaver; their daughter Madeline was born in 2001.Adams is well-known to fans of Star Trek for portraying Ishka (also known as "Moogie"), mother of the Ferengi brothers Rom and Quark. Adams was in fact over nine years younger than Armin Shimerman, the actor who portrayed Quark, and was heavily made up to appear as an older woman. She was a popular figure not only on the show but in personal appearances at various Star Trek functions and conventions.She appeared in guest roles on a variety of TV shows including Just Shoot Me!, Murphy Brown, and Party of Five. She also worked as an acting coach and as a casting director, casting such shows as 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show, and Eerie, Indiana. She was a member of the prestigious Hollywood theatre company Theatre West. She was also a talented lyricist.
- Jim Beaver: James Norman "Jim" Beaver, Jr. (born August 12, 1950) is an American stage, film, and television actor, playwright, screenwriter, and film historian. He is perhaps most familiar to worldwide audiences as the gruff but tenderhearted prospector Ellsworth on the HBO Western drama series Deadwood, a starring role which brought him acclaim and a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for Ensemble Acting after three decades of supporting work in films and TV. He currently portrays Bobby Singer in the CW television series Supernatural and Sheriff Charlie Mills in the CBS series Harper's Island. His memoir Life's That Way was published in April, 2009.
- Maddie (Madeline Rose): Jim and Cecily's daughter.
- Dr. Orr: Cecily's oncologist. She switches from Dr. Wolin to Dr. Orr.
- Jim Beaver: The narrator and the writer of the emails.
- Sean: One of Cecily's brothers.
- Dr. Wolin: Cecily's first oncologist.
- Maribel: Maddie's nanny.
- Stacey: One of Cecily's sisters.
- Russell Friedman: Runs grief counseling workshops.
- Cecily Beaver: The wife of Jim Beaver.
- Mommy: Add a description of this character.
- Cathy
- Denise: One of Jim's sisters.
- Alice
- Carolyn
- Tom Allard: One of Jim's brothers.
- Rebecca
- Teddlie: One of Jim's sisters.
- Dr. Meth: Jim and Cecily's family doctor.
- Ida Lee: Cecily's childhood nanny.
Quotes edit
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“I've been to war. I know that soldiers sometimes cry and whimper and call for their sweethearts. And now I know that war can come in many guises.”
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“Sign over hospital toilet: IF YOU ARE RECEIVING CHEMOTHERAPY, PLEASE FLUSH TWICE. That's so the next occupant doesn't get injured by splashed droplets. I now have a clearer idea how toxic these chemicals are.”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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“When you get to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.” —EDWARD TELLER
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The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman and/or visit their website at www.grief.net.
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Forgiveness is not something you do for someone else; it’s something you do for yourself. To forgive is not to condone, it is to refuse to continue feeling bad about an injury.
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“No one is completely useless. You can always serve as a bad example.”
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How incredibly far our lives drift from where we knew with all certainty they would go. How little today resembles what yesterday thought it would look like.
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“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.”
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Or as that smarty-pants Kahlil Gibran put it, “Joy and sorrow are inseparable . . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.”
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May I try to tell you again where your only comfort lies? It is not in forgetting the happy past. People bring us well-meant but miserable consolations when they tell us what time will do to help our grief. We do not want to lose our grief, because our grief is bound up with our love and we could not cease to mourn without being robbed of our affections.
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Yet happiness exists and grows and thrives. And I think it does so by our pushing aside the horrors and the fears and the pain and insisting on having a world with happiness in it. Perhaps happiness is merely a construct we’ve created to help us to survive in a difficult and often horrific world. I don’t know. I only know that when my friend Tom points away from Cec’s deathbed and says, “Life’s that way, let’s go,” I feel my soul pulled in that direction, toward not just mere survival, but toward happiness, despite the wretched ache in my heart.
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Life is, I’ve discovered, much harder to live when you’re afraid every moment.
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Setting & Locations edit
First Sentence edit
To Cecily's friends and family, and my friends and family, and our joint friends and family: Some of you are aware of what's been going on with us.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Jim Beaver (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: Add the language.
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 299
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 792.028092
Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Life's That Way: Official website for Jim Beaver's book Life's That Way
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