Rockland woman shares story of loss and healing in new book
Eileen Bellew’s memoir, “After John Jumped,” reflects on the death of her firefighter husband and the decades of grief, growth and resilience that followed.
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A Rockland County woman is sharing her life’s journey of loss and healing in a new book being released this week.
Eileen Bellew of Pearl River has written "After John Jumped: The True Story of a Family's Rise from the Ashes," a memoir that begins with the death of her husband, New York City firefighter John Bellew. He died in January 2005 during a fire in the Bronx on a day known infamously as “Black Sunday,” after jumping from a four‑story building.
“When your husband decides to do the courageous profession of firefighting, they do not hand out a guide to their family on how to handle a line-of-duty death,” she reads in the book’s prologue.
Bellew says the memoir focuses on the first year after John’s death and the 19 years that followed, as she navigated grief and raised their four young children.
“The book discusses mainly the first year of our experience. And then going through the next 19 years of learning and understanding all of the different things that we gained positively through tragedy,” she said.
She began writing the book two years ago, after her daughter, Katreana Bellew, decided to write a screenplay titled "Black Sunday: Trial by Fire." A story News 12 also covered. That project inspired her as a mom.
Bellew was 35 when she became a widow. Writing about that period, she says, was both painful and unexpectedly joyful.
“At times it was really difficult, and there are times I still read, even though I've read this book a thousand times, it still brings me to tears. Some parts of it. But a lot of parts are very humorous too because kids are funny. And they literally saved me," she said.
The book’s original release date was set for June, but she says so much early public interest moved the publication up to April 15 — John’s birthday. He would have been 59 years old.
Bellew seeks to reach someone going through a similar experience.
“Maybe give hope. Maybe give an understanding of where they can read and say, ‘This is how I feel. This is what I'm experiencing,’” Bellew said
More information and pre‑orders are available at eileenbellew.com.
