Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss
This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman—a “reluctant examiner” of death—navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience.

In 2007, Deborah Cummins “was still a stranger to death.” That is, until she was forced to come to terms with the anticipatory grief following the news of her sibling’s declining health. In an attempt to make sense of her brother’s death while he’s still alive, Deborah confronts hidden truths that were, perhaps, not so hidden in retrospect.

Before she’s able to fully grasp her brother’s worsening condition, the health of Deborah’s mother begins to depreciate as well due to the complications of a recent surgery and the heartbreak of her son’s condition. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother’s death shortly follows and Debroah must navigate grief compounded. 

Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Cummins skillfully examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each.
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Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss
This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman—a “reluctant examiner” of death—navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience.

In 2007, Deborah Cummins “was still a stranger to death.” That is, until she was forced to come to terms with the anticipatory grief following the news of her sibling’s declining health. In an attempt to make sense of her brother’s death while he’s still alive, Deborah confronts hidden truths that were, perhaps, not so hidden in retrospect.

Before she’s able to fully grasp her brother’s worsening condition, the health of Deborah’s mother begins to depreciate as well due to the complications of a recent surgery and the heartbreak of her son’s condition. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother’s death shortly follows and Debroah must navigate grief compounded. 

Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Cummins skillfully examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each.
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Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss

Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss

by Deborah Cummins
Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss

Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss

by Deborah Cummins

eBook

$12.99 
Available for Pre-Order. This item will be released on February 3, 2026

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Overview

This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman—a “reluctant examiner” of death—navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience.

In 2007, Deborah Cummins “was still a stranger to death.” That is, until she was forced to come to terms with the anticipatory grief following the news of her sibling’s declining health. In an attempt to make sense of her brother’s death while he’s still alive, Deborah confronts hidden truths that were, perhaps, not so hidden in retrospect.

Before she’s able to fully grasp her brother’s worsening condition, the health of Deborah’s mother begins to depreciate as well due to the complications of a recent surgery and the heartbreak of her son’s condition. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother’s death shortly follows and Debroah must navigate grief compounded. 

Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Cummins skillfully examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9798896360636
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication date: 02/03/2026
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 256

About the Author

Deborah Cummins authored three poetry collections and a collection of linked essays, one of which was listed as Notable in Best American Essays 2013. She received her MFA in creative writing, and her work has appeared in eight anthologies and more than 60 journals, including Yale Review, Gettysburg Review, Orion, Fourth Genre, and New England Review.

From 2001 to 2005, she was the Board Chair of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, and more recently, from 2016 to 2023, she served as Board President of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. In 2014, Deborah and her husband, Bob, relocated from Chicago to Maine, dividing their time between Portland and Deer Isle.

She passed away in the summer of 2023.
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