Warrior Mother: A Memoir of Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss, and Rituals that Heal [Paperback]

Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable, Loss, and Ritualsthat Heal is the true story of a mother's fierce love and determination, and her willingness to go outside the bounds of the ordinary when two of her three adult children are diagnosed with life-threatening disease.Sheila K. Collins, PhDhas been a dancer, social worker, university professor, clinic director, writer, and improvisational performance artist. She currently directs the Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players, an InterPlay-based improvisational performance troupe that assists human service agencies in serving noble purposes in the Pittsburgh community. Sheila has written about the power of play, dance, and the expressive arts in her book,Stillpoint: The Dance of Selfcaring, Selfhealing,a playbook for people who do caring workand on her blog,Dancing With Everythingwhich is on her website, sheilakcollins.com. Her forthcoming book, to be published by She Writes Press,Warrior Mother: A memoir of fierce love, unbearable loss, and rituals that healcomes out in April, 2013. ;Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part One

Coming Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Getting to Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Support for a Mother's Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Medicine Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Life upon the Wicked Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

To Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Spring Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

The Dying Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lƒk