Twentyone Olive Trees: A Mother’s Walk through the Grief of Suicide to Hope and Healing was written by Laura Formentini after her sons tragic death by suicide and is a collection of fables, poems and letters written as part of her grieving process. The collection’s title refers to the 21 olive trees that the author intends to plant—one for each year of her son’s life.

The letters and poems are addressed to her son Blaise and provide an insight into her progression from grief to understanding. They provide an intimate look into coping with loss and acceptance and gives hope to readers looking for answers about life and death, and those who long to transform their grief into something beautiful.

Each fable explores human connection and is distilled into a single word, that communicates the moral of the story.

In spite of the serious subject matter it is a book full of hope and healing. It shows Laura's journey from deep grief to a different way of being in a relationship with her son. “That is where I Find You, / In that Light that Shines its Love, / and which has always been at the / Very Core of My Being.”

Twentyone Olive Trees expresses the message that everything has a spirit of its own and everything is interconnected. We miss the physical presence of those who have left us, but ultimately they are still as close to us as our own breath.

"What Difference Does it Make,/ Knowing That You have Now Transformed,/ And that Here on Earth Your Light will Keep on Shining/ Upon those Who have Lost theirs."

Laura had envisioned her book as being illustrated like a medieval Book of Hours, and I was thrilled. As I am deeply inspired by medieval and Renaissance illumination and I absolutely relished the opportunity to indulge in intricate acanthus scroll borders and detailed illustrations. The brief was for 21 full page illustrations, illuminated initial letters for each chapter, spot illustrations for the chapter headings and I created the artwork for the cover. 

Twentyone Olive Trees: A Mother’s Walk through the Grief of Suicide to Hope and Healing was released on the 11 January 2022 and is now available in book shops and from online retailers.

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