When Grief Calls Forth the Healing

In the winter of 1961, Mary R. Morgan was twenty-three-years-old.  She had a new job, a new husband, and a privileged life as a member of the Rockefeller family, specifically the daughter of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of the State of New York. But tragedy changed the family forever when Mary’s twin brother, Michael Rockefeller, disappeared off the remote coast of New Guinea while collecting Oceanic art for a New York City museum.  It was a worldwide front-page news event with repercussions it would take decades to heal: Michael was never found.

When Grief Calls Forth the Healing: A Memoir of Losing a Twin (Open Road Media, June, 2014) is a compelling, spiritually evocative journey through the experience and integration of deep personal loss as it is seen through the unique lens of losing a twin.

When Grief Calls Forth the Healing: A Memoir of Losing a Twin tells the painful, hope-giving story of twin loss and healing. Morgan takes the reader on her journey out of the terrible isolation of becoming a lone twin into healing community and into partnership with her own natural healing process. By coming into relationship to herself, to others and to nature, she is able to heal her grief and claim a new relationship to her twin brother.

This story of twin bereavement has universal meaning, for it becomes a magnifying glass for the grieving issues in any deeply bonded relationship. It highlights and brings understanding to some of the most important healing and grieving issues that all people will face in their lives when they lose someone they deeply relate to and love. In this compelling narrative, Morgan provides fascinating insight into the subject of bereavement. Through her personal and professional experiences as a psychotherapist, Morgan discusses her work with the twin survivors of the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster and the healing benefits of imagery developed from the work of Carl Jung.  And she reveals our culture’s deep fear of not only death, but grief itself.

The book opens with a play between the family’s futile search for Michael in New Guinea and recounting exquisite childhood memories that unpack the fascinating bonded relationship of twins–the secret names, the effortless exchange of being with someone who knows you in a way that no one else ever could or will. Losing anyone close is like losing a part of ourselves. Losing a twin is like losing an entire identity. What followed was Mary Morgan’s 27-year repression of her grief and an unconscious denial of her twin’s death, which haunted her relationships and controlled her life.

A beautifully honest story that sheds light on the isolation and anguish of personal loss, Morgan’s story is finally hopeful, as it uncovers a universal “natural healing imperative,” supported through personal connection and community.  Her memoir will resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Rockefeller Morgan, L.M.S.W., holds a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University, and is a certified guide and trainer in Spontaneous Interactive Imagery. She lectures on the subject of twin loss and led a bereavement group for those whose twin died in the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. She conducts bereavement workshops at the Twinless Twins Support Group International conferences and delivered their keynote speech in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and will deliver it again in 2014. Ms. Morgan has worked as a therapist at the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services and has been in private practice since 1991, specializing in twin loss and bereavement counseling. Mary R. Morgan is also Executive Producer of a forthcoming documentary on genetic determinism and the American dream. She is married and has three children and seven grandchildren.