Only Spring: On Mourning the Death of My Son »

GORDON LIVINGSTON, M.D., a graduate of West Point and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has been a physician since 1967. He is a psychiatrist and writer who contributes frequently to the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Baltimore Sun, and Reader’s Digest. Awarded the Bronze Star for valor in Vietnam, he is also the author of Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. He lives and works in Columbia, Maryland.

The loss of a child is every parent’s most unspeakable fear. Gordon Livingston survived that tragedy not once but twice in a 13-month period, losing one son to suicide and another to leukemia. Only Spring, based on the journal he began keeping when the family received six-year-old Lucas’s diagnosis, traces the excruciating ordeal of witnessing his child’s courageous battle and the agonizing cycle of faith lost and hope regained. As a memorial, Only Spring will introduce you to a remarkable child whose legacy of hope and love can enrich each of us. As a portrait of survival, it will infuse us with the strength and faith to confront the most profound challenges in our lives.