ST. JOHN —  When Judith Miller lost her son to an diving accident on Feb. 15, 1994, she never imagined she would write a book.
Judith lost her 25-year-old son Jay in a diving accident in one of the blue holes in the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas.
Soon after his death, Judith became aware of a soft voice in her head. The suggestion to express her feelings about her grief was heard as a gentle voice speaking in her right ear one afternoon, shortly after the death of her son.
When thinking about writing the story of her experience, Miller thought to herself — “Me? Write a book? I don’t know how to write a book. All I’ve ever written was song lyrics, poetry and radio copy. How could I ever write a book?”
Miller’s writing experience came from years of writing commercial copy throughout her radio career. She worked at radio stations in Great Bend, Liberal, Garden City and North Carolina.
Twenty years after her son’s death, she has finished compiling her thoughts and feelings into a book of thoughtful meditations. “From Beginning to End and Back Again.”
The book is described as a mesmerizing story of a mother’s loss and the unfortunate road to closure that leads through many difficult times, before she finally accepts what had happened.
One of her struggles was trying to distinguish grief from imagination as she felt her son’s presence.
The loss of a child is the topic Miller delves into with her heart doing the majority of the writing as she struggles through what she believes to be her son communicating to her from the after-life. Her tale is a window into the pain which the human soul can endure and triumph over.
“What happened to me touched very close to my heart,” she said. “It’s me telling the story of what happened, how to deal with the grief and how to come to an understanding with it. But it took me some time to reach the conclusion that I would publish the information.”
Miller said her writing has already touched readers.
“My hope was that I may be able to help other people going through similar grief,” she said. “I wanted it to be a  road map to know what lies ahead for them. People who have had a similar experience have told me the book has helped them.”
Miller said she has benefited from the experience of expressing her feelings. She returned to Kansas from North Carolina and resides on a farm outside St. John.
“It’s been very healing for me to do the writing,” she said. “I have empathy for anyone who has dealt with a personal tragedy.”
Judith is the daughter of Alice Jane Fox, who died Feb. 15, 2013, exactly 19 years after her son died. Alice was a longtime employee of American State Bank in Great Bend.
Miller has donated copies to the Ida Long Goodman Memorial Library in St. John and the Great Bend Public Library. A book signing will be scheduled in St. John at a later date.
“From Beginning to End and Back Again” is available online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes and Noble.
For information, contact Page Publishing 866-315-2708. Learn more at www.pagepublishing.com.