Grief’s Gift
A memoir of love, loss, and unexpected hope
For the days when you don’t know how to keep going
COMING SOON - 16 June, 2026
There’s a moment in grief when life doesn’t just break — it collapses.
One diagnosis. One phone call. One ordinary day that becomes the dividing line between before and after.
What do you do when the world you trusted falls apart… while God seems to stand silently in the rubble?
For Carmen Allen, dementia and cancer didn’t steal her parents all at once — they took them slowly… memory by memory… until she was living through one gradual goodbye after another.
And in the quiet ache of that unraveling, she often found herself asking:
“God… where are You?”
But tucked inside the fading were moments she didn’t understand until much later — hidden hellos from God.
A perfectly timed phone call.
A stranger’s kindness.
A sudden glimmer of hope.
Subtle evidence that He had not abandoned her.
Grief’s Gift is a daughter’s raw story of heartbreak, faith stretched thin, and the surprising ways God stitches gold into the fractures.
Alongside her story, Grief’s Gift includes a practical tips section for daughters and caregivers — with checklists, guidance on aged care and government services, explanations of legal terminology, and the wisdom she wishes someone had shared with her sooner.
This is the story behind the Molly books — what was unfolding in Carmen’s life while those adventure stories of courage were being written.
a note from carmen
Why I wrote this book…
I didn’t write this book to promote myself or tell a sad story.
I wrote it because I know what it feels like to be in the middle of it —
the grief, the exhaustion, the confusion, the decisions you never felt equipped to make… and that quiet question in your heart: How am I supposed to keep going?
There were so many times I felt completely out of my depth — navigating aged care, managing expectations, dealing with other people’s responses, and trying to hold everything together when I felt like I was falling apart.
On the outside I kept up a brave face but on the inside I was screaming.
And I remember wishing someone would just sit beside me and say,
“This is normal. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re not alone.”
That’s why I wrote this.
If my experience can help guide you — even in a small way —
if it can give you clarity, reassurance, or simply the strength to take the next step… then something good has come out of something very hard.
That’s also why I’ve included a practical section at the back of the book — to help you work through the real, everyday challenges that come with this journey.
You don’t have to have it all together :)
You just have to keep going, one step at a time…
what readers are saying
“Grief's Gift is the most honest, raw, authentic memoir I have ever read. Through her gift with the written word, Carmen brings her readers into her inner sanctum, sharing her thoughts and feelings in a chain of traumatic events that led to loss and overwhelming grief. She bares her soul in the hope of helping others dealing with such major life challenges.”
— Fiona L.“The book helped me to better understand the ongoing nature of grief. I would recommend this book to everyone! We all have several experiences in our hearts that God can weave golden threads of hope, love, and faith around them, making them even more beautiful!”
— Janet A.“I love how the author writes in a way that gently pulls you out of your own reality and into hers. By the end of the book, I didn’t feel like I was just holding myself together with tighter bandages. I felt something had actually begun to heal. For the first time in a long time, I felt safe to feel exactly what I was feeling — because someone else had felt it too.”
— Darlene A.