Heather Davediuk Gingrich
"Within the pages of A Chronicle of Grief, Mel Lawrenz bares his heart broken with grief, yet his story is sprinkled with hope. As I write we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is ripping so many from the arms of their loved ones. When he wrote this book, the author would have had no inkling of what was to come. So much death . . . so much loss . . . so much trauma . . . so much grief . . . for so many individuals and families. A Chronicle of Grief could not be more timely."
Mark Buchanan
"Mel Lawrenz has, by some alchemy of grace and daring, taken the harrowing pain of losing his beloved daughter and turned it into healing balm. A Chronicle of Grief deserves to stand alongside C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Gerald Sittser's A Grace Disguised, and Nicholas Wolterstorff's Lament for a Son as an experience of rawest sorrow transmuted into a testament of deepest hope. Profoundly moving and profoundly life giving."
Scott Arbeiter
"This book is difficult to read—as any honest book about death and grief must be. But it is rich and indispensable to any on this hard journey or walking with another who is. Here we witness a father's crushed heart desperately reaching for grace and truth. It is a story told with searing honesty, genuine doubt, and sustaining faith. Mel is the guide we need for the journey we do not want."
Jill Briscoe
"Mel Lawrenz has written lucidly and beautifully about the death of his beloved adult daughter. His transparent description of the overwhelming grief he experienced and the solace he found in the Lord and the community of faith is moving, instructive, and most helpful. Highly recommended."
Scot McKnight
"When the unthinkable happens to those you love most, you cope, you drag your legs out of bed in the morning, you walk as in a stupor, you move one foot in front of the other, and you limp like Jacob. The limp never goes away. This book is about the horrific, tragic death of Eva, the author's daughter, and the book is painful to read. Mel and Ingrid will limp until they die, but their limping is somehow a grace of memory that painfully reminds them of Eva. In their limping they remember Eva, they talk to Eva, they talk about Eva, they wonder and they wander, they see Eva and places she liked and they liked together. But every step, no matter how painful, is a limp with her at their side. Mel Lawrenz has been a friend for years, but I entered into his inner world in this book. Many of us are limping with Mel. At times I had to put this book down, but along the way I acquired a limp."
