The Goodbye Diaries

Two months to live.
That's what the doctor says.
 
Sally responds with grace and optimism.
 
Marisa responds by closing herself off. If her mother is going to die before she graduates from high school, why even try. Cancer has already ruined everything.
 
Honest and heartfelt, The Goodbye Diaries offers a touching glimpse into both sides of a terminal diagnosis--the one who will leave and the one who will be left behind. Sally and Marisa have always shared a rare closeness, but their relationship is unrecognizable when Marisa cannot figure out how to be there for Sally as she struggles through stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Only seventeen, Marisa avoids her mother's illness by filling her life with perfect prom dresses and imperfect boyfriends. But when Marisa throws herself into a tumultuous relationship, Sally performs a final act of motherhood to prepare her daughter for life without a mom.
 
Told in alternating voices, Sally and Marisa reveal their fears, their frustrations, and their fierce connection to each other. This poignant mother-daughter memoir is an intimate look at unconditional love during a heartbreaking goodbye.

Marisa Bardach Ramel is Sally's daughter.
She's a former magazine editor who has written for Seventeen, Prevention, Woman's Day, Glamour, HuffPost, POPSUGAR, xoJane, Modern Loss, and more. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, toddler boy, and baby girl.

Sally Bardach is Marisa's mother.
She was a loving and exuberant mother, wife, teacher, and friend. And now, many years later, she is an author. She is cheering on this book from somewhere up above.