Making meaning out of grief

St. Vital

Rumi, a 13th century poet once said,“The wound is where the light enters you.” In response to this ancient quote covering countless decades, many have written about grief through the loss of a loved one.

As a young woman whose father was blinded by war, Catherine Hunter read voraciously to him.

“My mother read to me,” Hunter said. “There was this rhythm and emotion when she spoke that,even if you didn’t connect with the words, compelled me to write short stories.”

For the St. Boniface resident and author, this personal situation left a heartache that was transformed on to paper. A former associate professor at the University of Winnipeg for 30 years, Hunter’s new release, Seeing You Home, is an intimate portrait of devotion, grief and the impossible task of finding a way forward.

The novel honours her partner who died of cancer in 2018. The story unfolds at the St. Boniface Hospital, when Clare’s husband Richard’s cellphone is stolen. Tracking its signal throughout the city, it is her only tangible means of the memories she has from “ the exhilaration of their first meeting to the raw ache of his absence,” quotes Hunter. Adrenalin rushes when it is the only thing you can hold onto. A keepsake, a memorial.

“Living through his diagnosis to his death, shaped this discovery into wondering, what is a widow? How is that defined?”

While the definition is clear, the experience is complex, and every person reacts and transforms differently

Influenced by one of the most pivotal writers, award winning Neepawa born author, Margaret Laurence, Catherine sought to garnish some of her own awards. Amongst many, her short story Calling You received a Gold National Magazine award and in 1997, Latent Heat won the McNally Robinson’s Manitoba Book of the Year.

There is a theme that runs through all of her four books, three mystery novels and three novellas, all maintaining some kind of notoriety through her collections. After Light is a complex saga about love, war, blindness, trauma and the power of art and amongst an Irish-American family, spanning four generations and four different countries. In essence, it hints at Hunter’s family’s heritage.

For the mystery enthusiast, Where Shadows Burn, The Dead of Midnight, and Queen of Diamonds are also a part of Hunter’s repertoire.

You will want to hug this book, Seeing You Home, which will be launched and for purchase at McNally Robinson’s on Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.