In No One To Wake, Marilyn C. O'Leary shares “a bouquet of mourningâ€_x009d_ the death of her husband of fifty years. This book of poetry is beyond beautiful. And one needn't have been married for fifty years, or married at all, to feel softly wrapped in the understanding of how it feels to lose someone you love deeply. Both pain and transcendence are painted in her poems, plus the naturalness and magic of death itself “…you took your leave breathing like a fish, swimming out into an ocean of darkness and love.â€_x009d_ She also addresses the guilty urge to look back and question whether she did enough, whether she was enough “The recipe for my life had ingredients you didn't like,â€_x009d_ and then acknowledges that “Our relationship was whole.â€_x009d_ And then ther's the need to go on. She recognizes the “freedomâ€_x009d_ that comes from loss; “sadness an opening… (to) find yourself unwrapped. I could do anything, be anything, go anywhere,â€_x009d_ she writes, but “What if it wasn't you who kept me tethered?â€_x009d_ In this small book, O'Leary takes us from the dark folds of anguish where w're sometimes drawn towards death ourselves, to the realization that “The answer to all is Life.â€