Blossoming

The book begins: “It took eight years, nine new heart attacks, and the sustaining love of my mom, for my dad to bloom. Slowly, through dozens of health crises and hospital visits and an ever more damaged heart, distress stripped away from him to reveal a purity of his person. This is what fell away: depression, perfectionism, insecurity, rage, and even illness. What was revealed: a pure spirit and a secret answer to the mystery of his pain and rage.”

With text and photographs -- taken over eight years -- Sara Kirschenbaum tells the story of her father’s simultaneous demise and flourishing. Her father, Bernard Kirschenbaum, was an architect and sculptor devoted to geodesic design and art. Her mother, also an artist, creates rituals and even a religion devoted to drinking coffee and ice cream, to keep her husband engaged and happy. It is a story about a family discovering surprise gifts in the midst of dying.