5 days

Stepparent bonds can be hard to read, and this memoir begins there. After her stepfather's final cancer diagnosis, with a prognosis of three to six months, the author finds herself drawn into the process of his dying, a part she never imagined for herself. Over his last five days, as he readies himself for death, the two come to share a closeness and trust usually reserved for a father and daughter.

The story unfolds on the Texas Gulf Coast in the deep south, a landscape of cara cara hunting and resurrection ferns that curl up and then unexpectedly green again. The book is written as poetry and tells of vulnerability and courage, of the humility required to forgive, and of the idea that it is never too late to live or to love.