Swimming with Maya

Book excerpt: "I really do not know how to greet this man, so I simply extend my hand. He takes it and then pulls me into an embrace that lasts several long moments. As my head rests against his jacket I find myself weeping, and through that sound, I hear the steady beat of Maya's heart in his chest," writes Eleanor Vincent in this moving story about love, loss, and renewal. Maya, Eleanor's elder daughter, was a high-spirited and gifted young woman. At age nineteen, she mounted a horse bareback on a dare, and in a crushing cantilever fall, was left in a coma from which she never recovered. Eleanor's life was turned upside down as she struggled to make the painful decision about Maya's fate. Ultimately, Eleanor chose to donate Maya's organs. Maya's heart was given to a man with a young family who needed a new heart to live. As time went by, Eleanor contacted and struck up a friendship with the heart recipient family. Swimming with Maya is about the unique and complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. It also explores how through organ donation, a relationship can continue to exist beyond the grave, changing many lives. In vivid language, Eleanor Vincent illuminates how courage, radical generosity, and letting go can heal a devastating loss. Book jacket.