Through raw journal entries and poems, Miriam Stone - now a college student - has created a stirring tribute to her late mother and a memorial to an extraordinary year of grief and self-discovery.

I turn back toward the street and catch her eye. I haven’t been accepted to school yet. She hasn’t announced her death yet. But in that glance is our first goodbye.

Miriam Stone’s mother is dying of cancer, and for the first time in this young writer’s life, words seem impotent. To tell her mother the lifetime of things she wants to say is akin to losing hope. To say goodbye is to give up. Even writing poetry, which once flowed in long streams, no longer comforts - she writes a different poetry now, spare and without answers. As the author conveys in this deeply moving, authentic memoir, poetry is found in every moment of every day, and at the end of words comes a new beginning. Miriam Stone’s heartfelt, spontaneous words will speak to anyone who has experienced grief or loss.