Actress Rita Avila Launches Inspirational Book

Actress Rita Avila recently launched an inspirational book at the Mall of Asia SMX function hall in Roxas Boulevard with simple rites.

“8 Ways to Comfort with Grace” is a booklet written by a grieving mom on a lost child. Avila may surprise readers with her not-exactly-conventional thoughts about people’s behavior on grief.

All centering on her sad moments when she and her husband director Erick (EM) Reyes lost their three-week old son Elia Jesu E. Reyes in 2006, Avila’s prescriptions on how to cope with loneliness and hopelessness are very frank and candid.

As part of the Manila International Book Fair celebration, St. Paul’s Publishing hosted the launch of Avila's compressed, tight and direct revelation of her experiences.

The book however bite-sized and missal-typed offers concrete advice on the right attitude when attending a funeral wake, condoling with bereaved ones, talking to the grieving party after the tragedy, and the like.

The author advises mourners not to use clichés like “Your loved one is in heaven now,” when trying to console the bereaved.

Avila said one should check first the religion of the bereaved ones before mouthing such hackneyed phrases.

According to her account, when somebody reprimanded her one day after the death of her son not to cry and simply move on, she got upset and wished that person dead. She said she was serious in that wish. How could she move on so suddenly, she asked, when her son had just died the day before the cremation?

Avila also said fewer and shorter words are better during condoling instead of kilometric sentences of wisdom and consolation.

Asked if they had any plans of having another child, she replied, “Wala pa. Hindi pa panahon.”