griefgirl

Only one blog post so far and already I have a guest blogger. What a slacker I am!
My excuse? I’ve been busy working on my next book… fiction this time. Yay! I get to make stuff up. Much more fun!
So, let me introduce my guest… Drum roll please (hmm, how does one write a drum roll?)… And today dear readers I am pleased to present…. Adam Knott – wonderful husband, supportive friend, and amazing photographer. You can find out more about him by visiting http://adamknottphoto.com
Adam has been at me for a while now to tell the true story (aahhh!!!! I’ve had enough of true stories. I want to move on to make believe) of what it was like to write my memoir about my parents being killed when I was 14. Not just what the experience was like for me… but for both of us. It’s extremely difficult for me to allow Adam to do this, but…
Well, I’ll let him to tell you more…

Hi everyone, Adam here.
Let me start by saying…
Some cultures believe that a photo can steal a person’s soul. In Erin’s case, I believe that photographs helped her hold onto hers.
I met Erin when she was 19. Just five years after her parents were killed. We were both working on a daily metropolitan newspaper. Erin as a cadet journalist, and me as a photographer. From day one, I loved to photograph Erin. She was such a character - daring (sometimes too much so) and funny and brave.
Eight years ago (at my persistent urging) Erin started to write her book, GRIEF GIRL, about her parent’s deaths and her grief, in the hope of helping other people feel less alone in their grief. She thought she could “knock it out in six months.” We thought it might be good for her.
She said to me… “If I’m going to do this, it has to be in my teenage voice… raw and brutally honest. I’m going to have to go back and relive everything.”
Little did we know what we were getting ourselves in to.
Erin started writing and I picked up my camera to document the experience. After a few months I started to see a change in Erin. Very quickly, photographing Erin stopped being about recording her writing, but more about recording her feelings. You see, Erin became severely depressed while writing GRIEF GIRL. It’s something she doesn’t like to talk about, but is willing to allow me to do so. She is very brave like that, and that is one of the many things I love about her.
These photographs below (a selection from a larger series) were taken during a time when Erin would only leave our apartment to see her therapist or to float in the apartment building’s rooftop pool in the middle of the night. The writing on the images is from a journal I kept at the time. It was a way for me to express how I felt living with and loving someone who was suffering from depression.
My wife is my life.
And this is Life With Wife.

* To read the words on the images, just click on the image...





















And now... the book is done, the depression has subsided, and I have my Erin back.

Ok, so I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so bear with me.
Hmmm....
My name is Erin Vincent, although my husband has started calling me "GRIEF GIRL" on a regular basis.
I can't walk through the front door of our apartment without hearing... "da-da da-da... it's GRIEF GIRL!"
Just for the hell of it, I might surprise him one day and wear a cape with the letter G emblazoned on it.

So, why Grief Girl?
Well... I'm the author of a memoir (Grief Girl/Random House, 2007) about my parents being killed by a speeding tow truck when I was fourteen. My brother was three at the time, and my sister was seventeen.
I am a former journalist and love to write, but never imagined I would write about the death of my parents. But then one day, about eight years ago, it dawned on me that maybe someone needed to write a raw and honest account of grief. Not the kind of grief you see in the movies and on TV where someone dies, someone cries, and then they're all better a few months later, but REAL grief. As I say in my book...
Grief's got balls!

Oh god! It all sounds so maudlin. There's a lot of humor in there too... I promise. You've gotta laugh right?

Woah! I just clicked on the "Mood" button thingy below and there are so many moods to choose from. Who knew?
I will be here all day trying to decide my mood!!!!

Better go. I have another book to write. It's a novel. I'm so excited!
Cheers,
Erin xxx