Wings I Never Asked For: The Goodbye I Never Got To Say

When a mother loses her child, the world expects her to break quietly.To grieve politely.To survive silently.But this is not that story.The Goodbye I Never Got to Say is a raw, unfiltered, and devastatingly honest memoir about the day a mother’s life exploded and the painful, faith-filled journey that followed.On June 9, 2017, Dy-Shawn Lamar Simpkins Jr., a gifted young athlete with a full scholarship and a bright future, was stolen by violence at just eighteen years old. In the hours, days, and months that followed, his mother fell into the deepest darkness grief can offer losing herself, losing her will to live, and losing the woman she once was.This book is her resurrection.Through shattered memories, unbearable truths, and moments that will grip your soul, PetaGaye Anderson recounts:The morning a mother’s intuition warned her that her world was about to breakThe phone call that split her life into “before” and “after”The funeral that became a spectacle instead of a sacred farewellThe spiritual collapse that almost took her life, tooThe toddler whose tiny hands pulled her back from the edgeThe faith that carried her when nothing else couldThe wings she grew from pain she never asked to feelThis is not a gentle grief memoir.This is a mother’s scream turned into scripture.A testimony carved from trauma.A love story between a mother, her son, and the faith that refused to let her die with him.For every reader who has ever lost a child, buried a dream, or carried a pain the world could not see you will find yourself in these pages. And for every parent who still has their children in their arms you will hold them tighter after reading this.Heartbreaking.Haunting.Holy.Transformative.The Goodbye I Never Got to Say is more than a book.It is a journey through hell, guided by the light of a mother’s love—and the mercy of Allah who lifted her back into life. Read more