Learning to Dance in the Rain: A True Story about Life Beyond Death

When a tragic car accident took the life of our twenty-one year old daughter, Maia, we began a journey that has been simultaneously the most heart-wrenching and spiritually uplifting period of our lives. Learning to Dance in the Rain chronicles the first year of this journey. Through pain and despair to renewed energy and spiritual discovery, we describe the many ways in which we are finding strength and inspiration to carry on our lives. With help from family and friends, a variety of religious and spiritual traditions, encounters with the natural world, and, most profoundly, continued connection with our beloved daughter, we are learning that death is as much a beginning as it is an end and that one person's smile can make a significant and positive difference in the world. Learning to Dance in the Rain is a personal story that demonstrates how love, courage, and openness to new experiences can help transform grief and sorrow into opportunities for spiritual growth. It is also a story that celebrates the potential of one individual to deeply inspire others during her time here on earth and even after that time has ended. In these two respects, our personal story is also universal, and one we believe worth sharing. The original version of Learning to Dance in the Rain was written for family and friends in recognition of the first anniversary of Maia's death. From the responses received, we realized that sharing our experiences so openly was helping others continue to find comfort, healing, and growth, as well as ourselves. As a result, and with much encouragement and support, we decided to make our story available "to the world." It is our hope that what we write about Maia and the life path we are forging since her death, will be of help to others. Needless to say, our journey is not over. We still have more questions than answers and occasional moments of pain and sadness, but we continue to walk together toward a future which, in some ways, may be more meaningful than we ever thought possible.

Lori and Brian McDermott are both educators who met in 1982 while attending graduate school at Texas A&M University. They moved to Massachusetts in 1988 with their two children, Sean and Maia, and continue to live and work in the central Massachusetts area.