I don't often get "fan mail," (for lack of a better term) but when I do it's usually for Max, and this is no different. Often it's funny as hell, sometimes stalker-scary, but once in a while I get mail that really gets to me. And this one...it got to me.
Shared with permission, and by request, from one of Max's readers, Dana.
Shared with permission, and by request, from one of Max's readers, Dana.
I admit, there were tears shed when working on the book. I never thought I would get choked up weeks later...
“I had to write to tell you, when I read the blurb on Amazon and it said the reader would cry until their nose ran, I thought it was just some Max-snark. I didn’t take it seriously. I bought it, and when it arrived my 10 year old son grabbed it and begged to be the first to read it. He loved the idea of a book written by a cat, and I had no reason to not allow it, because Max, even though he’s often inappropriate, is funny and not over the top.
That evening, when I went to get him from his room for dinner, I found him on his bed sobbing wildly. He could barely get the words out, but managed to tell me Max had talked about dying, and it made him cry because we lost our senior cat Bruiser just a few weeks ago. This is where I must admit, I was angry. I should have paid closer attention to the reviews, in which most stated they had cried. I should have read the book first because of it, but I just assumed Max would be funny through the whole thing.
The thing is, while I was busy getting mad, my son’s crying let up and he blurted out “Bruiser got to go to a place called the bridge! He’s having fun! He’s all right.”
My son believed this whole heartedly because Max told him so.
He has had such a hard time since losing Bruiser, because that cat had been here from the day he was born and they were best friends. We didn’t really know what to tell him about life after death for pets; I knew the Rainbow Bridge poem, but reading that to a 10 year old just didn’t have impact. Reading about your dog helped, but reading Max’s letter to Hershey was the exact Band Aid my son needed.
Until I read the book, too, I didn’t realize it was what I needed as well. ”
7 comments:
What a lovely letter. The Bridge has comforted many pet owners (including me), and Max's letter explained in a way no poem could. I guess that's why Max is the writer!
Max is wise. His explanation of the rainbow bridge should be required reading for anyone who's lost a dear one
Max has a new title "Grief therapist".
That is a wonderful letter. Max can work mericlas!
Dagnabbit! Everything is a conspiracy to make me ugly cry lately!! The flash things/hormone potpourri doesn't help...
Aww that is such a beautiful story! I must admit I cried more than I've ever cried over a book before, and I'm not that much of a book crier. Although my hubby has read all of Max's other books I can't let him read this, he would fall apart, he's one of those types that cries even at happy moments in books and movies.
I saved Max's book to read on the Plane on the way home from Phoenix a couple weeks ago. I didn't get too far into it when Hank's bones started talking to him and I knew what was coming, so I laid it aside because I didn't want to be bawling on the plane with a stranger next to me...even though she looked like a kindly older lady.
Regrettably I haven't continued in the book as I've been too dang super busy to read, which to me is a hardship. I may have to start over, but I'm going to do it this weekend. With a box of tissues right next to me. What's the saying?? "Forewarned is forarmed" ?
-Lynne
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