— “Simple pleasures, or even times of the purest happiness imaginable, juxtaposed against moments of almost indescribable pain. As I gaze across the table at my husband and my surviving son, I know with absolute certainty that the three of us, each in our own way, are moving forward and embracing life, which is what I truly believe Kieran would have wanted us to do.
Valeria Teles interviews Margaret Thomson — the author of “The World Looks Different Now: A Memoir of Suicide, Faith, and Family.”
Margaret Thomson is an author and journalist whose world was forever altered the day her son Kieran took his life at the age of twenty-two. A medic in the Army, Kieran had been preparing for his first-ever deployment to Afghanistan at the time of his death, on August 28, 2010. Upon receiving the unthinkable news, Margaret and her husband Tim found themselves plunged into what can only be described as every parent’s worst nightmare. Lifelong Christians, the couple held tightly to their faith, even as Margaret found herself wondering whether she, too, might someday choose to follow in the path her son had taken. In desperation, Margaret turned to writing, which had long been a constant in her life, as a means of focusing her mind and organizing her thoughts. In itself relatively simple, the act of putting pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard—served almost as a form of therapy, eventually bringing more solace than Margaret had ever thought possible.
A professional journalist whose work has appeared in a variety of media outlets in the U.S. and Britain, Margaret relied on her journalistic training in her search for the deeper truths that she felt certain were lying behind her son’s death. “I was determined to put on the armor of the journalist in the hope that doing so would give me at least a degree of emotional distance,” Margaret says, “which was extremely foolish of me since there is, of course, nothing in the world that can protect you when it comes to dealing with your own, intensely personal loss.”
Margaret Thomson and her husband Tim live in the greater Nashville, Tennessee, area. Margaret is a journalist who’s worked in both print and broadcasting. Her written work has appeared in a number of British and American publications while her radio reports have been heard on broadcast outlets including ABC Radio News, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio.
To learn more about Margaret Thomson and her work, please visit: margaretrileythomson.com
— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.
