Goodhope

Grief is an elusive, messy thing. It gives and it takes away, but all who come in contact with it

find its indelible mark upon their lives. People who have walked through the valley of the shadow of death know that it is definitely a journey that everyone must make on their own, at their own pace; it is work, and work that only the grieving can do themselves. The main character of Goodhope, Matt Goodhope, has been forced to take just such a journey, one that he never counted on, one that has cost him much more than he was ever willing to pay. Goodhope is a poignant, profoundly human story about a man on his journey with grief, and the unique and engaging people that cross his path on that journey. Some give him gifts he can never repay, others seem determined to push him into a realm of living he'd never have known had his beloved wife not been taken from him so cruelly. The range of his emotions is as broad as it is deep, and for many men, at times, it can be an arduous thing to come face to face with such raw human emotion. It blisters, it weeps, it seems to be healing, only to be opened up again with such disregard for the soul, that Matt feels he may very well die, too. Perhaps at some point, death seems a welcome relief from the embittered existence he's come to know.

But just when he thinks he' s figured out how to manage this silent partner of grief, along comes Grace. Grace has no idea that her simple act of kindness could shatter this most fragile of

psyches, that her smile feels like a firebrand in his heart. She simply wants to extend an invitation to a gathering at the store. And thus begins the second journey; the journey out of the shadow of death, the pilgrimage toward something that can only be expressed as sincere hope.