Colours of Love - In Life and After Death

The title indicates that the book is primarily about love. It begins with the funeral of the author's husband, who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia and died in his early forties. But this is not a morbid tale tale of suffering, nor a predictable book on illness and death.

Although the story starts rather conventionally, this is on purpose. For when the author learned that her husband was ill, she was an average 39-year old woman with a corporate career. As the book unfolds, she guides the reader through her own spiritual discoveries. Most readers comment that (1) they cannot put the book down once they start reading it and (2) are deeply moved by the various levels of experience they encounter. For the matter of illness and death is only a background to the spiritual development of an individual, someone in search of the deeper meaning of life. The book addresses issues such as:

Overcoming fear and new beginnings
Being a person in your own right (self love)
Freedom (and trust) within an intimate relationship
What it means to have a soul mate: What is true love? What is intimacy?
Conscious living, every moment
Living with a life-threatening disease
Life after death: Contact with loved ones
Why nothing is a coincidental
Can I be helped? Do problems always have solutions?

On a structural level the author's voice is complemented with excerpts from her husband's diary as well as e-mails to friends and her own dreams. The book also integrates conventional practices and new age ideas in such a way that it appeals to people with various viewpoints.

The second half of the book describes several examples of her communication with the deceased, as well as the significance of the numbers 1 and 9 in their marriage. After his death, Marthie travels to Peru to follow the Inca trail. This literal journey is a metaphor for the spiritual journey that unfolds within her and she finds answers to existential questions.

The final image of the story is in the colour of Red, which is the colour of life, love and passion. In Peru, on tour with South Africans and Americans, Marthie is told, via a channel, that Derik wants her to buy herself a present, from him. It had to be something to wrap around her shoulders, it had to be red, and she had to buy it in Peru. The item turns out to be a Red Pashmina. The significance of this, as the closing image, is that the story is about life, about passion and about energy. The need to experience life in all its facets, and to grow.