Book Launch - 7:00 pm,
Tuesday Feb 21 2017 McNally Robinson Book Store
Winnipeg, Grant Park in the Atrium
Maybe it was the sting of remarks from a relative or friend. Maybe a miscarriage ended your hopes for a family. For all of your heartbreaks, maybe you wished there was someone to help you through. For Wilma Derksen, letting go of the 15 misconceptions about grief led her back to hope. In this book she tells how you can do the same.
Wilma’s world collapsed when her teenage daughter, Candace, was taken hostage and murdered. Wilma now shares her choices to “let go” of heartbreak, which gave her the courage to navigate through the dark waters of sorrow. Like Wilma, maybe your heartbreak forced you to retreat from happy expectations, of believing that life is fair, of finding closure for every circumstance. She encourages patiently: let go of the happy ending, let go of perfect justice, let go of fear, and let go of closure. Wilma’s wisdom will help you overcome your broken heart, and her advice will enable you to break free of pain to live a life of true joy.
Wilma’s world collapsed when her teenage daughter, Candace, was taken hostage and murdered. Wilma now shares her choices to “let go” of heartbreak, which gave her the courage to navigate through the dark waters of sorrow. Like Wilma, maybe your heartbreak forced you to retreat from happy expectations, of believing that life is fair, of finding closure for every circumstance. She encourages patiently: let go of the happy ending, let go of perfect justice, let go of fear, and let go of closure. Wilma’s wisdom will help you overcome your broken heart, and her advice will enable you to break free of pain to live a life of true joy.
 Richard Cloutier is co-host of the News on 680 CJOB (4-7 pm weekdays) and Senior Reporter, Global News. He is entering the 25th year of his career at 680 CJOB. His connection to the Derksen family is both professional and personal. Richard has covered their story and facilitated discussions about the criminal justice system, forgiveness and empathy with Wilma for most of his career. Wilma and Richard have this uncanny habit of running into each other at the weirdest and most opportune times. Karma? Fate? It’s all part of the journey. Richard is the proud papa of three adult children who are all in university completing their education. The Book is more important than your plans for it. You have to go with what works for The Book ~ if your ideas appear hollow or forced when they are put on paper, chop them, erase them, pulverise them and start again. Don't whine when things are not going your way, because they are going the right way for The Book, which is more important. The show must go on, and so must The Book.” - EA Bucchiarneri --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have followed Wilma’s journey for years. It has been incredibly difficult, incredibly moving, and her insights incredibly profound. She has much to teach us all. (Howard Zehr, Distinguished Professor of Restorative Justice, codirector, Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, Eastern Mennonite University) The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity. When the Nazarene said that we should forgive seventy times seven, he was telling us that forgiveness should be a habit, a way of life. Forgiveness is not for the person who has wronged us; it is for us---it sets us free. Wilma’s story is proof of this. (Bill Pelke, author, Journey of Hope ... from Violence to Healing) Wilma Derksen’s powerful book highlights a profound paradox---to achieve some degree of control over one’s life and emotions in the face of grief and trauma, one has to do the opposite---let go of control. (Ted Wachtel, editor, BuildingANewReality.com) |  I can't believe the time has finally come for this book to be launched. It was such a hard book to write!!! Wilma Derksen is an international speaker and consultant on victimization and criminal justice. She has told her story and facilitated support groups of survivors of homicide, organized dialogues between victims and inmates in prison, conducted trainings, given lectures, participated in panel discussions, presented her insights to the justice system, and addressed victims’ needs at restorative justice conferences throughout the United States and Canada. She lives in Winnipeg. Personal Invite. I can't believe this is happening. I'm still in trial mode - and now my book is coming out. I'm not even sure I'm back from Venezuela. Absolutely thrilled that Richard Cloutier is hosting this event. He asks the most provocative coaching questions - and I am always in learning mode when I am with him. Come and learn with us. I will be spinning with delight and won't remember a name - not even my own!! It is the perfect setting - a dream come true. WD  The reviews are in With this book Wilma Derksen has found a way to redeem the seemingly irredeemable. After living through a parent’s worst nightmare, she devoted herself to the hard work of forgiveness, dissecting each stage with a surgeon’s skill. The practical wisdom that has emerged could only come from someone who strained to forgive the unforgivable---and somehow succeeded. What she learned along the way brings hope to all of us who struggle with this most difficult, yet most necessary task. (Philip Yancey, editor-at-large, Christianity Today) In The Way of Letting Go Wilma Derksen demonstrates how the healing process is to pass from the narrative of trauma as overwhelming grief into the narrative of trauma as an experience of deep and meaningful significance. Bringing together all her experience and learning following the agony of her daughter’s murder, here over thirty years later Derksen is able to give voice to a humanity born out of suffering. There are few who have given as much thought to the transformative power of forgiveness---she has defined, refined, probed, and reevaluated one of the most difficult, complex, but never more relevant forces in the world today. (Marina Cantacuzino, founder, The Forgiveness Project) |
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