LOSS AND LOVE. Greg Fahrman and his wife, Kathie. Fahrman details his experience with loss, grief, and healing in his new memoir We Could Have Been a Train Wreck. He offers guidance to others who are processing trauma to help them heal and find a new love for life. (Submitted photo)

Chippewa Valley author Greg Fahrman processes his emotional journey through a decade of loss and grief in his new self-published memoir, We Could Have Been A Train Wreck. 

Fahrman’s writing aims to offer feelings of peace and hope to others who are processing grief, as the concepts of mourning, loss, and healing are something Fahrman is quite intimate with: He lost his youngest brother, Jeff, in 1983 to an unexpected cardiac arrhythmia; lost his sister Susie in a horrific rape and murder case in 1987; lost his brother Jan – then 34 – to liver failure as a result of alcohol abuse; and suffered immense heartbreak in 1993 when he lost the love of his life, Diane, to breast cancer. 

“I don’t consider myself to be a writer,” Fahrman admitted, “but I had a story to tell. And that was very important to me.” 

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I don't consider myself to be a writer, but I had a story to tell. And that was very important to me.

Greg Fahrman

memoirist

Diane Fahrman pictured with her two daughters, Katie and Laura. 

Diane Fahrman always insisted her family members should continue to use their talents after her death, and so Greg Fahrman did exactly that – although, it wasn’t always easy for him and his children, Katie and Laura. They used coping methods that encouraged healthy discussions about what life after the death of a loved one should look like. And that journey is something he wants to share with others who have experienced immense pain. 

“No grief should be minimized,” he said. “We all work through it, (and) we all have the right to grieve.” 

We Could Have Been a Train Wreck details Fahrman’s acceptance of death, the temporary sting of pain, and the lasting joy he found as he healed. His exploration of the wider scope of what comes after a loved one’s death helps readers take something key from his experience: how to shape their own lives throughout a period of immense grief.

Fahrman’s greatest fear for his family, he said, was that they would become a train wreck – where one bad thing could lead to the next. But with the help and support of his current wife, Kathie Fahrman, they were able to forge through the unimaginable.

As Fahrman writes, “You can’t put life on hold, take time to grieve then jump back in. It doesn’t work that way. … Find hope and hold on.”

Greg Fahrman on his wedding day to his wife Kathie Fahrman, pictured here with his two daughters Katie and Laura.

We Could Have Been A Train Wreck can be ordered on Amazon and through a personal message on Facebook (search for Kathie Fahrman) or email (gfahrman@gmail.com) for $19.95.