Scenes With My Son

A celebration and an elegy, Scenes with My Son sensitively renders the terrible privilege of grief in the wake of suicide.

After years of battling clinical depression exacerbated by autism, Auggie Hubbard died by suicide at the age of 19. In this poignant tribute to his son, Robert Hubbard–a theatre scholar and actor–stages Auggie’s life in a series of vivid and tender scenes: Auggie’s insatiable hunger for Accelerated Reader points. His tireless lightsaber practice in the local park. His sonorous tuba practice in the ward of his inpatient program. Through these anecdotes of Auggie’s life and the days following his death, readers journey with a family shaken by mental illness and share in their hard-won joys in defiance of depression.

Refusing easy answers and cliches about “God’s plan,” Hubbard unflinchingly asks: Does faith matter amid such tragedy? What do you do when awareness isn’t enough? When you’ve tried so hard to keep your child safe, but your efforts fail? His honesty and vulnerability–and his tender portrait of Auggie–are gifts to all who live with their own questions in the wake of a loved one’s death.