A mother channels her son after his suicide, which guides her in easing her grief, resolving a lingering childhood trauma, and finding a new purpose.

Denison becomes a single mother when her sons are eight and four, after her husband’s drowning death. Her wildly energetic younger son, Shawnan, reminds her of the Native American figure Coyote, a natural clown and playful trickster, yet she worries about his misbehavior and symptoms of depression. He graduates from college with a theater degree and moves nearby to start his acting career, deciding to stop the antidepressants he’d been taking since high school.

On June 29, 2015, Shawnan jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge and died later that night in the ER, leaving loving notes for his family and friends. Within days, “I began a telepathic exchange with Shawnan Spirit, as if our minds were directly linked. It was as clear, in fact clearer, than any conversation we had ever held on Earth.”

Denison transcribed every word he spoke—and those of a Spirit Collective that chimed in—compiling 63 pages of original source documents. Besides alleviating her guilt, her son encouraged her to resolve the lifelong pain of her father’s sexual abuse and her mother’s silence and revealed her new purpose as poet and inspirational writer.

Denison’s poetry and narrative are filled with details that break readers’ hearts wide open. Shawnan Spirit, too, speaks with believable echoes of his voice on earth, yet so profoundly. “Believe in my ability to now choose healing and express my true purpose, … Let me matter.”

Grieving parents looking to Denison’s story for guidance could find it challenging to replicate. Denison’s longtime study of yoga, bodywork, and Native American spirituality gave her the foundation on which to hear and accept voices from the other side. She and Shawnan Spirit evoke God, God’s grace, and the 23rd Psalm, so those with more traditional religious orientations can find a way in.

Ultimately, this is a tender, thought-provoking guide for learning to forgive, love oneself, and live with purpose.