Coping With Bereavement - Letters To My Wife In Heaven

Philip Hill was the youngest of a family of four and was born on the same day as his twin brother Paul. His elder brother was Peter and sister Anita, Philip never saw his father but was reunited with his mother on a visit to her care home when he was 14 years old. Philip and Paul were brought up by foster parents Albert and Jessica alongside their aoptive sister Lynn. Separated from his natural mother at critical early stage and neglected in a children's home Philip was behind in achieving key academic and emotional developmental milestones. Crucial to his later development was his twenty year marriage to Geraldine who had mental health issues which is something she had in common with her husband. They both supported one another and found it both difficult to live together and difficult to live apart. When Geraldine died suddenly of liver cancer in the summer of 2011 naturally Philip was distraught and sought to write down his feelings as part of the bereavement process. While he continues to grieve Philip is anxious to share part of his coping strategies with the reader whilst informing the world at large what a beautiful person his wife was, Philip has struggled with mental illness all his life and has documented his journey from unemployed outpatient via higher education and social care work experience to his current professional social worker role. This is detailed in his autobiography ' Living Out of The Book'(2008) and his novel 'Dopamine Clouds over Knighton Park,'(2009).