What Love Left Unfinished is a memoir that will always be remarkable to me. It reminds me of how fleeting life is and why I should cherish each moment spent with my loved ones.
Esther Okuru takes us on a journey of love, adventure, laughter, happiness, and then grief. Her first meeting with her husband would go down as a beautiful meet-cute—love at first sight.
They meet at a wedding and go on to form a special bond. It is as if an invisible switch clicks within them, and they fall helplessly in love.
One thing I enjoy about What Love Left Unfinished is the characters’ intentionality in expressing their love. They go all out, each meeting the other halfway, pouring into their partner’s chalice of love.
However, their love story lends credence to the fact that good things don’t always last. The synopsis reveals that the author’s husband passes away only five weeks after their wedding, but I could not fully grasp the weight of the story until I found myself shedding tears halfway through the book.
I remember playing Good Die Young by Phyno while reading this book and battling a wave of emotions afterward.
I love reading memoirs because of the rawness they carry. You feel someone else’s pain, sadness, happiness, tears, and laughter. As someone who has experienced grief firsthand, I can say for a fact that it has a unifying trait—we are all connected by grief.
As transient as life is, we don’t always consider or factor death into our plans. But then, death does not ask for our permission before it comes knocking. It is as insatiable as it is permanent. The scariest thing about death is its finality—it puts a full stop to whatever life has in store for you.
One moment, you are excited about making plans with someone you hope to spend the rest of your life with; the next, you receive a call that the love of your life is no more.
I can’t imagine what Esther has to endure for the rest of her life, but I applaud her for writing this memoir. It is a constant reminder that tomorrow is not promised and that it is okay to embrace your humanness. It is okay to love. It is okay to care for someone. After all, grief is the only evidence we have that we have loved.
What Love Left Unfinished will shatter you, yet it will also draw you into someone’s grief. It will remind you of life’s fragility and inspire you to cherish your loved ones today, for tomorrow is never guaranteed.
