On Friday, August 16, 2013, twenty-six-year-old Amr Kassem attended a peaceful protest in Alexandria, Egypt along with thousands of others, rallying against the mass injustices taking place in the aftermath of a coup d'etat by the Egyptian military under the command of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. As Kassem returned home to his family, an Egyptian army sniper shot and killed him, leaving a woman widowed and a child fatherless. "A Temporary Gift" is a record if journal entries written by Kassem's widow, Asmaa Hussein, during the two years following his death. This book is about re-learning how to live in the face of immense trauma. It is a reminder that beyond the pain and darkness of loss there is still the potential of light in patience and constancy.