Swimming with Maya: A Mother's Story

Swimming with Maya demonstrates the remarkable process of healing after the traumatic death of a loved one. At age 19, Maya mounts a horse bareback as a dare and in a crushing cantilever fall, is left in a coma from which she will never recover. Author Eleanor Vincent’s life is turned upside down as she struggles to make the painful decision about Maya’s fate. Ultimately Eleanor chooses to donate Maya’s organs. Years later, she is able to hear Maya’s heart beat in the chest of the heart recipient. Along the way, Eleanor re-examines her relationship with her daughter, as well as Eleanor’s traumatic life as a child and young woman. In a story that has been called “heartbreaking and heart-healing,” Eleanor Vincent illuminates the kind of courage, creativity, faith, and sheer tenacity it takes to find one’s balance after unthinkable tragedy.