Publisher's Synopsis
This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman--a "reluctant examiner" of death--navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience.
In 2007, Deborah Cummins "was still a stranger to death." That is, until she was forced to come to terms with the anticipatory grief following the news of her sibling's declining health. In an attempt to make sense of her brother's death while he's still alive, Deborah confronts hidden truths that were, perhaps, not so hidden in retrospect. Before she's able to fully grasp her brother's worsening condition, the health of Deborah's mother begins to depreciate as well due to the complications of a recent surgery and the heartbreak of her son's condition. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother's death shortly follows and Debroah must navigate grief compounded. Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Cummins skillfully examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each.
