Walking Through Winter

Walking through Winter is a timely and honest exploration of grief, suffering, lament and hope. Even if its theme is loss, it is brimming with life. Using the metaphor of the seasons, and drawing on costly personal experience and a wide range of resources, it is full of practical wisdom, authentic compassion and accessible theology.

The raw authenticity, the inexplicable courage and the life of grace with which I watched Katherine walk through life’s great winter is expressed beautifully in this book. Without a doubt, readers have already or will inevitably face into their own unique icy windblast. Such is life. When you do, I commend Katherine and her memoirs as a seasoned and trustworthy guide. Invite her story on to your journey as she has invited you.

Katherine Gantlett is a rare soul to encounter, and I thank God that I have had the privilege.

She carries a poise and presence which comes from facing into a personal tragedy with extraordinary spiritual openness, honesty and enquiry.

I don’t envy her journey, but I do, her wisdom. She shares with clarity, kindness and sensitivity – and always without cliché – offering insights of hope from her own 'walk through winter', while exploring many other wise and trustworthy theological sources along the way. There are no easy answers to life, but there are powerful expressions and explorations of it, and this is one of them.

We all encounter 'winter' in its many different forms – physical, 'spiritual', metaphorical, literal... – but far from avoiding or escaping the darker days, Katherine shows, instead, how to walk into them with courage, and to come through them, with transforming grace.

I, for one, am grateful.

Katherine’s story of loss is heart-breaking, but her description of what she’s learnt – and what can never be taken away – is profound and beautiful. These pages are full of comfort and wisdom for all who are facing their own winter and those who travel with them.

Katherine writes that she often describes the death of Libby, her baby daughter, as 'something akin to a bomb going off' in her life. This book charts the journey of how she learned to let God love her in and through pain and loss. It is a vulnerable, wise, authentic and theologically enriched account of grief. Walking Through Winter is deeply moving and will speak to many, perhaps especially Christians who come from a world where grief, suffering and pain are simply problems to be fixed. For anyone who has ever been told that, this book will come as a huge relief.