Book Review By Darren Denomme
Published March 2025
The Rose Bird is a beautifully written book providing a mother’s perspective on loving and losing her daughter to fentanyl. The author, Helen Davies, gives a raw account of the life of her daughter Katie, the tragic story of the life and struggles of a young woman who eventually is taken from this world by addiction and mental health issues.
Davies starts the book with Chapter 1 – The End, setting out the excruciating pain experienced when a police officer knocks on their door and informs them that their 23 year old daughter has passed away from a fentanyl overdose. This opening leaves the reader with no doubt that this will be a terribly sad story of loss, yet throughout the rest of the book, readers will find themselves hoping and begging for Katie to get the treatment needed to turn things around and get through her addiction and mental health struggles.
This dramatic opening to the book leaves the reader desperately wanting to understand how Katie’s illnesses progressed to such a point, and the rest of the book answers that question. It is a roller coaster of emotions throughout the remaining chapters as you ride alongside Helen and hear first hand the experiences of a mother trying to support and guide her child away from the dangers of living on the streets and succumbing to addiction. While the book is incredibly well written and articulate, it is very raw. Davies gives a very honest and open window to her life, starting with the birth of her first daughter Katie, then continues through Katie’s teenage years where life began to unravel. It truly is a depiction of every parent’s nightmare.
Throughout the book, the reader will experience a progression of painful events with Davies that eventually led to Katie’s death. There are also many happy and hopeful times included, which seem to give the reader unwarranted hope and a brief reprieve from the onslaught of disappointment, sadness and frustration. At all times however, you feel the love of a mother for their child, and we as the reader also feel this love and support for Katie.
The Rose Bird is not a book about solutions, just the painful journey the family has and continues to travel. Davies sets out her firsthand experience with the support systems available in the Waterloo Region, exposing the many deficiencies and issues which failed her daughter, but these insights are given in a productive way, meant to help improve the system, rather than a vindictive delivery of blame. It is Davies’s hope and desire that this book about the tragic life of her daughter can somehow reach the hands of those who control and manage publicly funded programmes that need to be in place to prevent future loss of life in our region.
The book is also written with the purpose of providing support to others going through similar experiences, as Davies states, “While there will be content that is triggering, I hope our story might resonate and bring some validation of the feelings and thoughts you have, and the confusion and dilemmas you have faced or are facing in your own journey.”
The Rose Bird ends with a chapter appropriately named Life Beyond Katie – Dread, Healing, and Hope. There is no closure to this story; there is no moving on from the loss of a child, just the desire and hope that you are able to feel the presence of lost ones in the beauty of the world around us, the roses and the birds.
More information about the book is available online at: www.rosebird.ca
Darren is a CFO and accountant who has supported the development of many tech companies in our region and is highly engaged in community. Darren joined The Working Centre’s board in 2020.
