When Carcross resident Ken Matthies lost his daughter in a helicopter crash in 2002, he thought he would never recover from the grief.

Nearly a decade since the tragedy, Matthies has released a book about his experience to help others suffering from the loss of a child.

The book, called How to Survive the Death of a Child, a Father's Story of Healing Light, is currently for sale in digital copy on Amazon.com.

"This is the story of the loss of my daughter,” Matthies said in an interview today. "By telling our story, I think I have been able to show how others can come to terms with loss and start to heal as well.”

On Aug. 8, 2002, Leila Brennan was co-piloting a logging helicopter, carrying a load of logs on a longline, about 210 metres in the air just outside Prince George.

The aircraft's input freewheel units failed suddenly, causing the propellers to stop rotating.

The helicopter careened into the side of a mountain, killing both pilots.

The night of his daughter's death, Matthies was sitting at a slot machine at Diamond Tooth Gertie's in Dawson City, he recalls. He was approached by the then-manager of the Midnight Sun Hotel, who told him to call home immediately.

His wife answered the phone in tears.

"My girl is gone,” he remembers thinking as he collapsed to his hotel room floor. It was the day before her 27th birthday.

Today, Matthies wants to share his experiences with others who may be going through the same process.

"This is a story I had to get out,” he said. "My sole hope is that other grieving parents will be able to read this and find a measure of support, knowledge that there is healing at the other end of grief.”

He began writing on the second anniversary of his daughter's death.

The book, which he has dedicated to his daughter and her pilot, began as a commemoration of her life for his granddaughter Peregrine, who is now 15 and living in B.C. It has since taken form as a guide to help others.

The book chronicles the experience immediately following the death, to the two years of healing with the support of Hospice Yukon and finally the point where Matthies could share his experiences with others.

"I was devastated beyond belief and I detail that, which is not something that has been written down by many people before me,” he said.

"The book is written with an insider's deep knowledge of of the experience. I hold nothing back.”

Much of the book is written from his own memory. Other sections were pieced together from notes he left himself and pieces of paper he organized on his bedroom floor.

This is the fourth edition of the book. The first he put up on a personal website and two others were published on web-based self-publishing sites.

"People have to find their own way to get through the grieving process,” he said. "But grief is also a circular process. When you face it, you can find healing, as I did it.

"It was a long road, but I hope through this book that I can help others find what I have found. Even if I help one person overcome, I will be a happy camper.”

Since writing the book, Matthies has started writing literary stories from his own life experiences, which he publishes on a personal website from his home.

Hospice Yukon's 21st annual Lights of Life ceremony will begin at 12:15 Thursday afternoon at the Elijah Smith Building on Main Street.