Outskirts Press, INC.

It’s A Girl…

Ashley and Richard are a handsome and successful couple, she an architect, he a physicist. In their mid-thirties they feel secure in their careers and relationship to have a baby to complete their lives, to seal their happiness. Their baby is stillborn. Ashley and Richard try to deal with the loss rationally, but the relationship is quickly threatened to its core, last not least by the feeling of failure when faced with friends and colleagues. Their story of falling apart before recovery is possible, experienced by thousands of couples each and every year and the underlying cause of so many divorces, is told alternating between the wife’s and the husband’s point of view. The author dares to deal with the difficult subject of what such a loss means to a couple’s sexuality, as men and women have different ways and time tables to deal with it. The novel is highly recommended by grief workers and psychotherapists and suggests small steps for coping, forgiving, and healing.

Bringing the red wine to his lips, Richard thought of the night when Ashley had painted the walls of the nursery a bright yellow and was waiting for him with a gourmet dinner and an expensive bottle of red. She kissed him on the cheek and tried to pretend that everything was back to normal, painful but manageable, like a temporary set-back at the stock market. How he admired her energy and self discipline. "Tomorrow I'll go to the office and talk to Lyle. I don't need the leave..." "Are you sure you don't want to rest a while?" "Rest from what?" A pregnancy that didn't produce a child didn't warrant a leave of absence or a vacation. Ashley was all puritanical work ethic. Considering the result, a hell of a lot of time had been wasted already! Richard firmly closed the door to the nursery and followed Ashley into the kitchen.