Good Night Kendrick, I Love You: A Mother’s Journal Through Grief

On the day he registered for eighth grade at his new school in March 1995, six-foot, two-hundred-twenty-pound Kendrick Fincher was followed out of school by the football coach who recognized a good player when he saw him. A few months later, Kendrick left for summer football camp and changed the course of his young life forever. On August 7, 1995-his first day of football practice-Kendrick suffered a heat stroke. For the next eighteen days, his parents watched as he lay in a drug-induced coma fighting for his life. On August 25, 1995, Kendrick died from multi-system organ failure, leaving his parents shocked and traumatized. Desperate for comfort, his mother, Rhonda, began writing heartfelt letters to Kendrick, now shared in her poignant memoir written to help others better understand the grieving process. Through her words to Kendrick, Rhonda learned to face her grief head-on, shares the raw emotions that surfaced daily, and eventually realizes that keeping her own hope alive is what will save her in the end. "Good Night Kendrick, I Love You" shares one mother's emotional journey as she slowly learns to live again after losing her beloved son to a tragic and untimely death.