This beautiful and moving memoir is deceptively simple. It weaves together memories, scenes, characters in a powerful warp and weft across decades. At the center is the enchanting figure of Joan, a woman who ignites each scene just as she provided light and life for her large and far-flung family. Galbraith Crump's meditations on Joan and their life together are vivid and particular to be sure--and breathtakingly powerful--but they also evoke larger considerations of meaning and mortality that will touch any reader. --David Lynn, Editor of The Kenyon Review