Book: The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope

Read the book ahead of time. This zoom session will be a time to discuss the book and share stories of loss.

This collection of writing from 26 authors examines sibling loss from a number of unique perspectives, including dealing with the death of an estranged sibling, unpacking delayed grief, what it means to know your existence is inextricably tangled with a sister’s death, and exploring signs and continuing bonds, while also validating common experiences among grieving siblings such as having our loss overlooked, a lack of resources and the impossibility of “getting over it.” These stories affirm that the death of a brother or sister is a profound and life-altering loss–and that both love and grief can last a lifetime.

Authors:

ALYSON SHELTON is an award winning screenwriter and essayist. Her writing is widely published at outlets including The New York Times, Ms. and The Rumpus. She’s deeply proud of her collaborations with other female creatives, most notably, the comic, Reburn and the films, To Hold The Night and Eve of Understanding. She’s anthologized in Comics Lit Vol. 1 (Accomplishing Innovation Press), No Contact: 28 Writers on Family Estrangement (Catapult 2026), Root Cause: Stories of Health, Harm and Reclaiming Our Humanity (Editor: Jeannine Ouellette) and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope (Contributor and Co-Editor). She’s best known for her Instagram Live series inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem, Where I’m From which will hit episode 200 in summer 2025. The poem also provides the spine for her memoir in progress.

Lynn Shattuck was 24 when her younger brother and only sibling, Will, died. His unexpected, substance-related death reshaped her family and life in innumerable ways. When she turned to the internet, hoping to find books written by others who’d lost siblings, she found more books on pet loss than adult sibling loss. 

In 2014, Lynn wrote an essay coining sibling loss “The Loss of a Lifetime.” The essay argues that our relationships with our siblings are unique– there’s almost no other relationship in which we could expect to spend an entire lifetime with someone. And yet, sibling loss remains underrepresented and is the least studied relationship in the bereavement field. 

Alyson Shelton’s brother Michael died in 1984, when she was ten years old. In 2021, Alyson and Lynn connected through a writing community online. Upon realizing Alyson had an early experience with sibling loss, Lynn invited her to join a community of writers who would eventually create an anthology on sibling loss. As Alyson began to unpack how deeply she was affected by Michael’s death, she offered to partner with Lynn on the anthology.

From there, Alyson was introduced to Molly, whose brother, Jimmy, died in 2014. Molly, who works in design in healthcare, shared her desire to create more community around sibling loss. Though Molly and Alyson were virtually strangers, they had much to talk about. Their conversations, which evolved to include Lynn, wove through a variety of topics from deciding what to say when someone asks “How many siblings do you have?” to the inherent loneliness of being a surviving sibling. In the process of these discussions around creating community, they inadvertently conceived their own. Now, they’d like to invite you to join them.