The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life

2015-2016 Sarton Story Circle: Memoir Winner

2016-2017 Readers Views Award: Memoir/Autobiography/Biography Winner, West Pacific Regional Winner

2017 Independent Press Award: Relationships Winner

2017 Northern California Publishers and Authors Second Place in Book Cover

2017 Northern California Publishers and Authors Second Place in Memoir

2017 Readers' Favorite Book Award Bronze Winner

2017 International Book Awards: Autobiography/Memoir Finalist

2016 National Indie Excellence Awards: Memoir Finalist

As a bereavement care specialist, Dr. Virginia Simpson has devoted her career to counseling individuals and families grappling with illness, death, and grieving. But when her own mother, Ruth, is diagnosed in 1999 with a life-threatening condition, Virginia is caught off guard by the storm of emotions she experiences when she is forced to inhabit the role of caregiver.

In a quest to provide her mother with the best care possible, Virginia arranges for Ruth to move in with her—and for the next six years, she cares for her, juggling her mother’s doctor’s appointments, meals, medication schedules, transportation needs, and often cranky moods with her own busy schedule. In The Space Between, Simpson takes readers along for the journey as she struggles to bridge the invisible, often prickly space that sits between so many mothers and daughters, and to give voice to the challenges, emotions, and thoughts many caregivers experience but are too ashamed to admit. Touching and vividly human, The Space Between reminds us all that without accepting the inevitability of death and looking ahead to it with clarity, life cannot be fully lived.