Kathleen Canrinus Knihy

When Canrinus was 15, her mother barely survived an accident that totaled her car. A woman of extraordinary vitality, she awoke from months in a coma to struggle with suicidal depression, finally reaching a new normal defined by losses unimaginable to most. Brain damages on top of the inevitable friction between any mother and daughter almost guaranteed an end to a loving connection. Kathleen Canrinus's memoir, The Lady with the Crown: A Story of Resilience, explores how unforeseen trauma can, in the blink of an eye, devastate a normal happy family and turn it into a uniquely wounded one. The story charts not only accommodation to loss but also the reinvention of joy.