Twenty Years Later

A Time for Love

For some, December is sparkling, filled with laughter, and joyful celebrations. For some, December is bittersweet, tinged with sorrow, and at times, misgivings. For me, this December fills me with hope, the hope that Alicia Afterimage, now in audiobook, will reach a new audience twenty years after my daughter Alicia passed at age sixteen.

On the evening of September 24, 2004, Alicia María Betancourt died instantly as a passenger in a car. Popular, happy, fun-loving Alicia —daughter, sister, friend to so many— gone in an instant. The driver survived. Throughout the next three years I interviewed many of Alicia’s friends and with distance and their consent, I wrote about their memories and feelings. How those left behind cope with such a sudden devastating loss is at the core of the memoir published in 2008.

Many who grieve find reading difficult. Attention to the word on the page is one of the things that disappears during the grieving process. However, the last two decades have taught me that solace and comfort come from learning of how others find the light after indescribable pain. Alicia Afterimage is a story of loss and recovery, but mostly it is a story of love. After the last words are spoken, the listener feels uplifted by the knowledge that there can be light again. And love is.

In love this Holiday Season,

LULU

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