Cleo by Helen Brown

 

Cleo is a surprising and wonderful true story about a family’s brokenness and a cat that brought them joy in the midst of grief.

Cleo starts with a Mum (Helen Brown) and her two young boys, and the eldest boy insisting on getting a kitten. They find a kitten which they choose but they couldn’t receive it for a month when it was old enough to be separated from its mother. During that time, Sam the eldest boy got hit and killed by a car, witnessed by his younger brother, which threw the family into horrific and devastating grief. When the kitten was delivered to the house Helen couldn’t even fathom keeping it, but her younger son smiled and laughed for the first time since witnessing his brother’s death, and she couldn’t turn this scruffy little runt of a cat away. Instead Cleo the cat (short for Cleopatra) burrowed deep into their hearts, while destroying their house, reminding them how to love and find joy again.

This book is a phenomenal look into grief, the death of a child, and how animals have a very special role in bringing relief and comfort in amongst the worst sadnesses life can bring. Helen so cleverly explores grief in a deeply personal, yet surprisingly light hearted and hilarious, way. She is such a funny writer who left me laughing out loud so often throughout the book. The book ran the whole course of Cleo’s 23 years of life and Helen weaved her story and Cleo’s story together beautifully- no matter what happened in life (her son’s death, birth of her daughter, her marriage coming to an end, meeting and marrying a new man etc), Cleo was always there. 

I loved the Kiwi style of this book and I likened it to A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath. They both have a laid back Kiwi style of exploring the depth of life in a refreshingly humorous way. It made me realise Kiwi’s have a unique cultural take and perspective on life which is unusual compared to the international world of books that explore the depths. I want to read more books by Kiwi’s like this. 

This book made me sad, it made me laugh and it made me ponder grief and life. It explores the paradox of life: simultaneously holding sadness and joy, grief and healing, brokenness and wholeness. It reminds me of the “already but not yet” reality of Christianity. We are already saved, redeemed, whole in Christ, while also suffering the sadness, brokenness and pain this world offers… until God takes us into our prepared room in His forever home where weeping and heartache will cease.