Losing Jonathan

When Bob and Linda Waxler received a phone call warning them their beloved and accomplished son Jonathan was taking heroin, they began a journey that took them through the detox hospitals and halfway houses of America. But the second call a year later, from the medical examiner in San Francisco, informing them that Jonathan had died, plunged them into the deep darkness -- a long, lonely journey into the center of themselves. Their task was to survive in a world that would never again be the same, and they did survive and even triumph, incorporating Jonathan into their lives not as a lost son, but as a living spirit who is with them in a new way.


"A moving story, well told, of love, loss and pain."  -- Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People


"Drawing compelling insights from the inner territories of their agonizing loss, Robert and Linda Waxler provide each one of us with understanding, wisdom and courage to search for the redemptive healing possibilities of life's meanings. I cannot recommend it highly enough!!"  -- Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, DHL, DD, author of Living When A Loved One Has Died


"'Losing Jonathan' is a powerful and heartbreaking book whose tender wisdom touches all parents. If the book has a single shortcoming, it is the titlexfor thanks to Robert and Linda Waxler, we have not lost Jonathan. Their son's soul shines strong in a moving tribute that also offers an important cautionary component."  --Elizabeth Mehren, author of Born Too Soon and After the Darkest Hour, the Sun Will Shine Again


"Robert and Linda Waxler have written a book that is easy and difficult to read. Easy, because they write simply and clearly with graceful references to English literature and the Jewish religion. Difficult, because they make us follow them through the grinding sequences of apprehension as Jonathan moves slowly toward death, then the long journey through the pain of final loss. Their diligence commands our attention." -- Steven L. Nickman, Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-editor of Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief


"Bob and Linda Waxler's courage and willingness to share their story is a gift to all of us who have children at risk. And the truth of their story is that all our children are at risk."  -- David Tebaldi, Executive Director, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities