Title: My Connie
Author: Pradeep K. Berry
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-5246-9510-1
Pages: 298
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewed by: Susan Brown
When a loved one dies, the grief can be overwhelming. For some survivors, this grief manifests in all different manners of behaviors in an effort to keep the memory of that lost loved one alive. For Mr. Berry, in the aftermath of the death of his beloved wife of 41 years, it manifested in him writing this loving tribute, My Connie.
While most of this narrative details his love for Constance “Connie,” we are also provided a glimpse into Mr. Berry’s life in India prior to him meeting his adored spouse. We learn about his unhappy childhood, the loss of his mother and stepmother, and the painful atmosphere in his home life. He left his homeland, as a young man with only seven dollars in his pocket, with mixed feelings about living in America. Once in the U.S., he did, however, spend time creating friendships with other immigrants from his homeland. And then he met Connie, which catapulted his life into what he calls his “best destiny.” She was his wife, friend, sister, mother and soul mate, all rolled up into one lovely person. He says about her, “When the girl in your heart, when the girl in your soul arm, then you have everything of the world.” Factor in that this smart, respectful, hard- working, attractive woman also adored her husband and it’s not hard to understand the depth of Mr. Berry’s sorrow. It’s palpable in his writing. He says, “I want to write my heart out for this book because Connie was my world.”
His heartache is evident in every chapter that highlights Connie and their life together. Mr. Berry details her passion for reading, music and arts, her enthusiasm for travel and great cuisine, and her devotion to their home and home life and her fierce protection of her spouse from unnecessary distractions. Their bond, unshakable and indefatigable, was the key to their successful, long-term marriage. This is perhaps why the struggle for Mr. Berry to find meaning in his life after her death is so difficult. There are moments in this narrative, with truly his grief-stricken soul laid bare, that are almost too painful to read. “The death of one half becomes the living death for the other half,” he laments.
Mr. Berry’s writing about his shared life with Connie is very thorough. He provides details which help the reader really know who they were and why their marriage was so happy. He also intersperses a smattering of wisdom from those like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and various Indian spiritual leaders, attempting to find a way forward after his tragic loss. The ups of Mr. Berry’s life with Connie always outweighed the downs, until that fateful day of her death when his whole world came to an abrupt end. The strength of this book is not about her death, but about her life seen through the eyes of one devoted husband. It’s a tribute well-worth reading.
