For many people, this is a magical time of year. But for one local author, this is a hard time of year. Karen Kohler Kaiser lost her sister and nephew during cold weather much like this nearly five years ago.

Kathy Baxmeyer, her son Kadin and his friend Austin all lost their lives when they fell through thin ice in rural Waterloo on Feb. 19, 2010.

Kaiser spent a few years silently grieving the loss of her only little sister and her nephew. Finally, she opened up in a way that could be shared with everyone: a book.

“At the anniversary of their deaths, I take a grief vacation,” she said. “I started having these thoughts that I should write something. I wanted to write something that would commemorate them and be part of the healing process for me. It’s hard to strike a balance there.”

The book, “Frozen Grief: A Sister’s Story of Grieving Sudden Loss,” has been available online since October, and Kaiser said she has been overwhelmed with the amount of kind words and positive feedback she’s received.

“It’s been helping me,” she said. “I’m glad people are reading it and aren’t afraid to read it.”

She self-published the book, and it’s available on Amazon.

“I designed the cover, the layout, everything,” she said. “I re-wrote it several times. It took three years to get it to where I was happy with it.”

Kaiser was nervous about the book being published, however, because of how transparent she is in it.

“It’s a hard story, but it’s my story,” she said. “It was very tough to write.”

The story begins on the night Kaiser received the tragic news from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department and takes the reader through the painful events that followed on that night in February. From there, she writes about her grieving process and how she found peace. Within the heart of the main story, Kaiser details fond memories and side stories of her family, her sister and her nephew.

“When I first wrote it, it didn’t have much emotion,” she said. “But as time went on, more emotions came back.”

Kaiser said the book also clears up a lot of rumors and confusion that surrounded that cold night.

“I didn’t really talk to anybody about the incident after it happened for a long time,” she said. “It was too hard to talk.”

Kaiser hopes readers of her book take away a sense of how much she loves her family.

“I hope the readers see the love that I have for my sister and nephew,” she said. “It’s the journey of a grieving sister who loved her family so much that she decided to write. I didn’t want to exploit this in any way. It’s so much more than the events of that night. It’s a journey.”

She writes about her frozen faith and how her grief thaws at the end of the book.

“It was a deeply distressing point in my Christian life,” she said. “In the midst of my sorrow and frozen faith, my grief did begin to thaw, my conviction was restored, and slowly I accepted others’ healing help and God’s help.”

Kaiser said the book is her “heart and soul,” and encourages people to read it and not be afraid.

“Grief is a real thing. It’s a real issue that needs to be dealt with,” she said. “Holding it in just makes it worse. Everybody grieves differently, though.”

Kaiser is also a founder of the local group, Project Skipper, which was started to educate children about ice safety.

“Our mission is to teach kids that no ice is completely safe, and when they see ice, they should think twice about going on it,” she said.

Especially around this time of year, Kaiser wants to emphasize the importance of ice safety so no one has to go through the same pain she’s experienced.

For more information on Project Skipper, visit www.projectskipper.com. To buy a copy of her book, search for the title on Amazon.com.