The Living Room: The Transforming Power of Caregiving...A Daughter Learns How to Live From Her Dying Mother - Tapa blanda

Polite people don’t talk about death. It is whispered about, confined to nursing homes, hospitals, and dark quiet back bedrooms. As adult children of dying parents, we are woefully unprepared for the journey that most of us will eventually take — trying to figure out how to usher our loved ones out of the world with dignity and grace. On April 20, 2012, my journey with my mother began. She was a beautiful, vibrant, independent attorney who was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. I became her everything — her caregiver, her advocate, the protector of her heart and her spirit. I didn’t ask for this role, but I was chosen for it. For eighty days, my mother lived in the most unlived room in my house — the living room. In that time, more living went on in that room than had ever before taken place there. Family and friends from all walks of life pulled up chairs around her bed. We ate. We drank. We sang. We cried. But mostly, we learned how to live again. My mother died in that room on July 8, 2012. This is her story, my story, and every adult child’s story of what it is like to be transformed by the power of death.

Amanda Lamb is a professional juggler who hasn't slept in years. She juggles two busy careers along with a family. By day she is a television journalist assigned to the crime beat at an award-winning CBS affiliate, WRAL-TV, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is also the author of eight published books. Her most important job, however, is being the mother of two blossoming young ladies. In her more than twenty years as a professional journalist, Amanda has developed a reputation as the go-to reporter for networks seeking credible feedback and interviews on murder cases garnering national attention in the Southeast. She has penned three books about murder cases she has covered for WRAL, which include "Love Lies," "Evil Next Door," and "Deadly Dose." Her books have been the subject of dozens of national crime magazine programs including 48 Hours, Forensic Files and Discovery Investigates. Amanda has also written three touching, humorous memoirs about parenting including "I Love You to God and Back," "Girls Gone Child," and "Smotherhood." "I Love You to God and Back" is also available in a children's version. Her collections of funny, self-deprecating, tender essays take the reader on an insightful journey into the complexities of raising children in the twenty-first century. She also writes a blog about parenting every Monday called "Go Ask Mom" on WRAL.com. Her newest project is a memoir titled "The Living Room," which documents the eighty days she spent caring for her mother who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012. The book is a moving, inspirational tribute about the transforming power of caregiving and how we can all learn more about how to live from facing death. A native of Philadelphia, Amanda now makes her home in North Carolina with her husband and daughters. She graduated with degrees in English and psychology from Duke University and obtained her masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University. You can catch Amanda's juggling act daily on WRAL-TV or online at WRAL.com, on Twitter and on Facebook.