Author(s): Sandra Arnold

Grief & Loss

At the age of 22 Rebecca Arnold, an art student from Greendale in Canterbury, was diagnosed with a rare and vicious cancer. Thirteen months later this vibrant and talented young woman was dead, her family left to cope with a tidal wave of grief and loss. Sing No Sad Songs is a heartbreaking and yet beautifully composed memoir by Rebecca's mother, Sandra Arnold. It is a haunting story of bereavement, survival, courage and acceptance, as well as a fiercely tender account of a close mother-daughter relationship cut far too short. The story begins with the family's move to live in Brazil for a year, during which time we get to know Rebecca and her family, and watch her blossom into womanhood in this colourful and challenging environment. Her subsequent decline and death are all the more shocking in contrast. This profoundly moving and compelling memoir is neither sentimental nor voyeuristic. It is a restrained telling of a personal journey - 'the map I have constructed for myself' - that is ultimately powerfully redemptive.