The Space Between

2015/2016 Sarton Story Circle Winner in Memoir
2017 Independent Press Awards Winner in Relationships
2017 Reader Views Awards Winner in Best from West Pacific

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 Betweenreminds us all that without accepting the inevitability of death and looking ahead to it with clarity, life cannot be fully lived.

Author: Virginia A. Simpson

Publication Date: April 5, 2016

Categories: Award-Winning, Memoir, Spring 2016

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About the Author

Description

2015/2016 Sarton Story Circle Winner in Memoir
2016/2017 Reader’s Favorite Views Award Finalist in Memoir/Autobiography
2017 Beverly Hills Book Awards Finalist in Memoir
2017 Independent Press Awards Winner in Relationships
2017 National Indie Excellence Finalist in Memoir
2017 international Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir
2017 Reader Views Awards Winner in Best from West Pacific
2017 Reader Views Awards Winner in Memoir/Autobiography/Biography

“Many of us will face the confusion and heartbreak of helping elderly loved ones through their last days. In The Space Between, Dr. Virginia Simpson, an acclaimed bereavement care specialist, not only shares her own journey but also focuses a lens on her difficult and evolving relationship with her aging mother. An empowering memoir, The Space Between is filled with insights and wisdom about this most human of experiences.”
—Lynne Morgan Spreen, author of the award-winning book Dakota Blue

“In Virginia Simpson’s memoir, The Space Between, we’re invited into the intimate story of a mother and daughter in the waning years of their relationship, marked by misunderstandings often experienced by adult mothers and daughters. We follow her as she attends her mother’s end-of-life journey. Despite Simpson’s career and expertise with death and dying, she finds her mother’s decline painful and illuminating in ways she couldn’t imagine. As we walk in her shoes, we discover how conscious tending and moment-by-moment compassion create transformation and healing for them both, allowing them to say good-bye with love.”
—Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Don’t Call Me Mother

“The Space Between is a moving evocation of grief therapist Virginia Simpson’s emotional bond with her aging mother, Ruth, and a poignant, clear-eyed account of her journey as Ruth’s caregiver during the last years of her life. Simpson’s memoir offers a testament to love’s enduring and transformative power throughout our lives and in our closest family ties.”
—Diane Guernsey, Executive Editor, Pulse–voices from the heart of medicine

“The Space Between is a thought-provoking and moving recollection of the final journey a daughter takes with her mother when forced to face the inevitability of mortality. It is about bridging the gap between generations, ones capacity for love and forgiveness, and personal courage that can be summoned when needed. It is a tale of two women who are headstrong, intelligent, prideful, gracious, forgiving, and bonded by typical mother-daughter love: exasperating, exquisite, eternal. It is an intimate journey of shared lives and history. I was touched by their vulnerability that ultimately led to emotional healing.”
—Kathryn Mattingly, award-winning author of literary suspense novels Benjamin and Journey, and short story collection Fractured Hearts

About the Author

Virginia A. Simpson, PhD, FT is a bereavement care specialist and the Executive Counseling Director for hundreds of funeral homes throughout the United States and Canada. She is the founder of The Mourning Star Center for grieving children and their families, which she ran from 1995 to 2005. Simpson has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. She holds a Fellowship in Thanatology from the Association of Death Education & Counseling (ADEC), and has been honored for her work by the cities of Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, and Rancho Mirage. She lives in El Dorado Hills, California with her husband, Bob, and golden retriever, Shelby.