In November 2005, author Dirk van der Merwe received the call every parent dreads above all others. His daughter, Riana, was dead at thirty-seven. In the shocked silence that followed, both Dirk and his late wife, Elsie, underwent an unusual experience. Some would call it paranormal—a phenomena that is physical but can’t be proven scientifically. It was a sensation so overwhelming that—notwithstanding the intense shock, pain, and confusion—it filled them with an indescribable peace and acceptance. This reaction was the exact opposite to their experience thirty-five years prior when their second baby was stillborn.

The fact that Elsie experienced the same unaccountable “at peace and complete acceptance” sensation propelled Dirk into an exhaustive study of bereavement and natural law. Riana’s Gift is the result of that investigation. It dissects and rejects all standard recommendations for dealing with death and traumatic loss. It dismisses the idea that the grief and pain of bereavement in all its forms is a life sentence that must be endured and suppressed one day at a time. It is unique in providing guidelines that allow you to live on, joyfully celebrating the spirit of the person you love without anguish or guilt, as though the pain and trauma of the loss never happened while the fond memories of the individual blissfully remain.
This is guaranteed by that same natural law that leaves a new mother joyously exuberant, forgetting the recent agony of childbirth.

Riana’s Gift offers a hands-on manual to healing from loss and trauma with special focus on parental bereavement based on natural law.