I am a mother who has had to bear the unbearable after my teenage daughter died from cancer.

I am a parent to a surviving daughter torn apart by the loss of her sister.

I am a woman who stumbled, collapsed, and stood up again.

I have recently completed a memoir, Hope Is A Bright Star, about my fourteen-year-old daughter Elizabeth’s battle with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. I write of her fear and courage, denial and acceptance, and her parting wisdom. My memoir reveals how in the face of her impending death, Elizabeth lived a life filled with grace. My story sheds light on the harsh reality that relationships in families can break apart after a child’s death. And it’s a testament to how the love and support of family, friends, and community can heal and make whole a once-shattered woman.

I know that writing Elizabeth’s story has made me stronger, and I believe that sharing it will benefit other families who are struggling with the death or life-threatening condition of their child or relative, too.

In an earlier publication of poetry, Facing Into the Wind: A Mother’s Healing After the Death of Her Child, I capture the process of grieving, healing, and even reawakening to the joy and beauty of life.

As a writer with a keen interest in narrative medicine, I have attended workshops at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University about the beneficial health outcomes of writing and sharing personal medical narrative. Currently, I am leading a journaling program, ‘Journals of Hope,’ with the aid of medical staff at a pediatric hospital. The goal is to give parents and children over 13, the opportunity to express their own stories and be heard. To read a tribute to ‘Journals of Hope,’ click here.

Earlier in my writing career, I studied poetry with Mark Doty and memoir with Paul Lisicky at the Juniper Institute, part of the UMASS MFA program in Creative Writing.