Life Hikes

A powerful and hopeful essay collection exploring grief, courage, and the healing power of nature. In October 2018, Dr. Renée Brown Harmon lost her husband, Harvey, to younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease when he was only fifty-eight years old. After Harvey’s passing and nearly a decade of caring for him, Harmon found solace in hiking, nature, and travel—discovering that even when she felt frozen in her grief, her feet would keep her moving. With Life Hikes, a memoir in three parts, Harmon shares her journey of self-discovery in the wake of loss with authenticity, candor, and grace. From an encounter with gigantic Galápagos tortoises to the 19,000-foot summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to the mythology-steeped Greek island of Ithaca, she explores the parts of herself and the edges of her grief that will ultimately bring her through it. Like Harmon’s acclaimed first memoir, Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s, this collection is a triumphant tale of finding a new and authentic life through kindness, community, mindfulness, and the knowledge that the search for lost strength can sometimes reveal new and more powerful versions of ourselves.