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An intensely intimate journey into the unseen and unspoken aspects of catastrophic illness, told from the determined viewpoint of a forty-year-old stay-at-home mother of three. Packed with inspiration, advice, comfort and hope, Between Me and the River is Host's candid and uplifting love story of how she found the strength and fortitude to triumph over adversity.
When told at forty, with her youngest child only ten months old, that she had carcinoid tumor, Host felt she had been hurled into a raging river, stripped of all forms of potential rescue. The voyage of this strong-minded, open-hearted woman out of that river and onto safe shores is told with uncompromising honesty and respect for the miracles that medicine and love can work.
While dealing with practical issues such as how to find the best medical team and what to tell her children, Host experienced many spiritual and eye-opening lessons: How to forgive and how to cherish. How to see what is available rather than what is absent. How to free up energy to heal by letting go of anger and fear.
Host's unquenchable sense of humor in the midst of suffering creates poignant moments of laughter through tears. Her book conveys an enormously deep sense of understanding and ultimately delivers acceptance and peace. She offers an "emotional nightlight" for cancer patients in their time of greatest need—perspective for the soul.
Bracing, lyrical and deeply moving, Between Me and the River is a tribute to one life and all lives. This is a beautifully written book for survivors, caregivers, family members, and friends.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 1, 2009 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781400193233
- File size: 274664 KB
- Duration: 09:32:12
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 29, 2009
On Halloween in 2003, Host was given terrifying news: she had carcinoid tumor, a rare and deadly form of cancer . The wife and mother of three children (then ages 10 months, 11 and 13), who is now in remission, was given a prognosis of 18 to 36 months. In this heartfelt narrative, Host attempts to simultaneously fight the disease and find peace with the possibility of death while remaining strong and hopeful. The author describes the moments of comfort and joy she receives from those around her, but she doesn't flinch from the realities of life-threatening illness. Regarding one particularly harrowing hospital stay, she recalls, “I thought I had already earned my doctorate in pain, but it turns out I was wrong.” She finds humor among the indignities cancer patients must endure, writing, for example, “I should have known that, as a mother of three, the only possible way to get 12 uninterrupted hours of sleep would be surgery.” Host's honest depiction of her personal experiences also captures the universal aspects of cancer. In one of the book's entries, dated nearly two years after her initial diagnosis, Host recounts a conversation with a stranger, a fellow train passenger: “We have that instant connection that you make with someone who has suffered the loss that cancer can bring.” -
Narrator Renée Raudman honors every step that 40-year-old Carrie Host takes while coping with her rare, and generally lethal, carcinoid cancer. Raudman's delivery is halting as Host doubles over with pain that no doctor can identify. Her tone shifts to one of panic when Host hears her frightening diagnosis, leaves her three children for an operation in another city, and meets terrifying situations that make her feel adrift in a boat that's been swept into a rushing river. But Host searches for the positive in her situation, and Raudman sounds whispery and tender as the author expresses gratitude for "angels" who support her and for her husband's constancy. In the face of continued depressing developments, Raudman projects teary frustration. Happily, the voices of both author and narrator strengthen as Host begins to laugh and hope again, and to recount the startling perceptions she's learned from cancer. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
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