The Broken Vase

On a sunny May afternoon in Silver Spring, Maryland, Yaffa Klugerman's 14-year-old son, Dov, crossed the street from his school to his home and was hit by a car. He was rushed to the hospital, where Yaffa and her husband, Tzvi, immediately learned that their son had sustained a non-survivable injury. After nine agonizing days in the hospital, Dov succumbed to his injuries, and his parents were left to somehow go on living along with their four surviving children. Their close-knit Orthodox Jewish family and community would make valiant efforts to help--but how could the Klugermans ever move forward? In this memoir, Yaffa Klugerman explores the harrowing experience of the accident and Dov's time in the hospital, as well as her crisis of faith in the year following his death. It is a raw, vulnerable, and authentic view into an unimaginable tragedy and the power of hope and ultimate healing that followed.

About the Author :
Yaffa Klugerman is a professional writer and editor, currently working as a director of content marketing at a cybersecurity company. Her background is in journalism, public relations, and marketing, and her many articles on Jewish life have appeared in The Forward, The New York Jewish Week, the Washington Jewish Week, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and through Behrman House Publishers. She resides in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren. The Broken Vase is her first book.

Review :
This book is very personal and very real. It brings us close to the experience of losing a child, and all of the heartbreak that entails. It is also a book of grappling with faith and finding hope in the midst of darkness-an important book for anyone who has lost a child or knows someone who has. Sherri Mandell, author of "The Blessing of a Broken Heart" and Director of the Koby Mandell Foundation No greater love, no greater loss, no greater challenge: A mother's journey from despair to transcendence, harrowingly experienced, beautifully told. Tova Reich, author, most recently of "The House of Love and Prayer and Other Stories" Memoirs of a child's death are often a recounting of facts, a litany that must be verified on the page for the parent author to believe their impossible truth. In "The Broken Vase," Yaffa Klugerman's exploration of her firstborn son's death and its impact on her family and her deeply-held faith, the true purpose of memoir is revealed. Yaffa mines the depth of her experience as a Jew, a wife, and a bereaved mother to paint a shimmering portrait of an existence in complete disarray as she questions everything she knows and believes. She arrives at her explored truths in ways that leave her both brittle and soft, but retaining her unique traits: intelligent, spiritual, mindful and reflective, attuned to her surviving family, her relationship with God, and with her son Dov ever nearby. Gabriella Burman, author of "Michaela" In her heart wrenching and deeply personal book, "The Broken Vase," Yaffa Klugerman powerfully and poignantly describes the shattering pain that those of us who have lost children on the roads experience and the courageous steps we must take to rebuild even as we remember. Yaffa's journey is one of courage, resilience and inspiration. Her words offer solace, strength, and a reminder that even in our deepest sorrow, hope and healing are possible. Rochelle Sobel, President, Association for Safe International Road Travel