Grief is a universal human emotion. We all lose people we love, particularly as we grow older. Rebecca Daniels of Turners Falls recalls the loss of her husband, and the strategies she used for dealing with that loss, in “That Day and What Came After: Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six Short Years.”

As the subtitle indicates, her marriage to her soulmate, Skip, wasn’t long lived. They met in middle age. She had suffered through a difficult marriage once before and wasn’t 100% sure she wanted to commit herself to another man.

Nevertheless, as the book recalls, this man was different: patient, generous and charming. Moreover, he could cook!

They slowly bonded and eventually committed themselves to each other in a ceremony in front of friends and relatives. They enjoyed large and small activities together, including gardening and travel.

And then one day she came home to find him sitting in his favorite chair with sunlight all around him. He was unresponsive. His heart had given out.

Daniels is frank about the waves of grief that hit her over the days, months, and years after her husband’s death. She shares the journal entries she wrote, many directed to him, as she attempted to process the hole in her life.

She is candid about early uncertainties. For example, she notes that although many members of a grief group she joined were confident of being reunited with their dead spouses after their own deaths, she felt less clear about that possibility.

Her husband had been a widower when they met. He already had a spouse waiting for him in any afterlife there might be. Only deep thought, wise counsel, and time could resolve this issue for her.

She also had initial concerns about her place in her husband’s daughter’s life.

Fortunately, that place was quickly cemented, and Daniels continued to spend time with her daughter-in-law and her grandchildren.

“That Day” is a moving, well written memoir. The reader comes to know and like Rebecca, Skip, and their friends and relatives.

The book, like Daniels’s life, has a special place and deep affection for the pets who have graced her with companionship and solace. Like the author, the reader comes to feel affection for Webster. This cat came to Daniels after Skip’s death and gave her love and cuddles for many years.

This memoir isn’t a how-to book, yet it will still be useful for those in the throes of grief. It doesn’t sugar coat the hurt Daniels has experienced, but it does show her active attempts to hang onto her past while slowly shaping her future … not easy tasks.

Rebecca Daniels will sign and sell books at the Book Fair on Sunday, July 14, starting at 1 p.m. at Peskeopskut Park in Turners Falls. She will also read from her new book at the Northampton Senior Center on Thursday, August 15, at 1 p.m.

“That Day” is also available at World Eye Books, at Federal Street, at Amazon.com, and from the publisher’s website.

For more information about the author, go to rebecca-daniels.com.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.