The Transient

Someone taken from us too soon; loss we may not have seen coming; pain we literally cannot bear—these are the most perilous risks of loving someone, and we don’t know ahead of time if

our future might hold such torments … but in grief we discover more fully why we would choose that love over again, even if we knew.

“A brilliant, graceful evocation of the arc of grief and the dawning of redemption.  Judy Evans brings us this extraordinary work of soulful self-awareness within which exquisitely rendered personal details are masterfully swept into transcendent principles of shared humanity.” 

- Debra Finnegan-Suler, PhD, Clinical Psychology

After an unforgettable phone call delivering the news that her younger brother Dave had been killed in a car crash at age 22, author Judy Evans was plunged into a grief for which there was no guide. From the childhood joy of cradling her baby brother, to the stunning near-muteness that overcomes her as she holds his body just hours after his death, The Transient describes her experience of having, and catastrophically losing, a younger sibling. It follows her through the early aftermath of loss and on to the larger task of living with anguish not just at anniversaries and holidays, but in the innumerable moments of everyday life. Each chapter ends with a meditation inviting the reader to explore and honor, rather than simply endure, his or her own experience of loss.  This intensely personal account unfolds in an atmosphere of companionship with the reader, while also recognizing the individuality of grief. The Transient is a shared journey, with each small step tenderly contemplated.

Judy Evans lives and works in the suburban Philadelphia area.