Love Is Deeper than Distance: Poems of Love, Death, a Little Sex, ALS, Dementia and the Widow's Life Thereafter

Our love songs have no shadows. We dare not acknowledge the deep love that can coexist with loss. But in this timely and timeless collection, Peg Edera offers what we didn't know we needed: a proposal in the dark, a squad car filled with lilacs, tears saved for the right time, toast and honey.

The world of illness and dying is demanding and complex. Peg documents the love of her life, her husband Fred: his diagnosis with frontal temporal lobe dementia and ALS, the loneliness of missing him before he was gone, worry for their daughter, and grieving in all its dimensions and untimeliness. Fred died at home, shortly after he turned sixty-seven.

In writing, Peg uncovered tender truths, unlikely humor, the faithful awareness of deep-hearted love in an unpredictable world. And hope for the future.

Peg Edera lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. Her prior work includes How We Name Thee, Poems of the Motherland.