Judith Ford was a successful psychotherapist with a relatively new second marriage, a full-time clinical practice, and three children. She was also a runner, a yoga-practitioner, a dancer, and a writer when she came down with a mysterious illness that landed her in the hospital for a full summer and nearly ended her life. She recovered through a combination of Western medicine and shamanic journeys. A few years later she helped her parents through their final illnesses. This book is both her story and theirs, about how each of them maintained hope or sometimes despaired. It's about how they each suffered and rallied, laughed, loved, forgave, and let go. And it's about how all of us live in the shadows of the unknown and the unanswerable.