Everything Love Brings....The Story Of Losing My Best Friend And The Community Which Helped Me Through It

Everything Love Brings is the story of a woman named Darlene Carpenter, a community called Cascade, Iowa, and two years which featured tremendous fear, sorrow and loss. It’s also a little bit about recovery and moving on with the help of people who love me.

You’ll meet Darlene, a sweet, kind and caring gal who touched many lives from the Luther Leaguers she worked with when she was younger to countless Cascade folks in the final years of her life. You’ll meet Floyd Carpenter and Cecil Chapman. Floyd was Darlene’s husband of 47 years while Cecil was one of her first sweeties and many years later, her last. You’ll read about Floyd and Cecil’s impact on Mom and myself. You’ll also learn about the courage of all three during their final days.

You’ll be introduced to Cascade, a city of 2,000 located in northeast Iowa. It’s the hometown of baseball Hall of Famer Red Faber, pro basketball player Ashley Arlen, Creighton University men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott, University of Iowa sports announcer Gary Dolphin and San Diego Padres pitcher Colin Rea. That’s all impressive, but the reason I want you to know about Cascade is because during my 12 years as part of it both professionally and personally it has been so good to me. During Mom’s decline, Cascaders kept us in their thoughts, cried with and for me and said no matter how many times I was knocked on my ass they would help me up.

You’ll also meet me. I will make you laugh. At some point, I may make you cry. I might even make you wish you could hold me in a long hug. I know with certainty I will make you want to pull your hair out as I kind of do that to anyone who gets to know me.

This is not a guide to caring for loved ones or on how to grieve. This is just my little memoir about losing an incredibly wonderful person and having amazing people help me through it. It’s about everything love brings-the happiness which comes from having someone to care for and have someone care about you, all the emotions which come when you realize you’re losing that someone and the strength which comes when you have someone to pull you through.