Wild and Precious Life

September 26, 2016
Ziegler is the mother of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who, when diagnosed with brain cancer, chose to take steps toward ending her own life. Ziegler recounts her and her only child’s journey through a terminal diagnosis in this heart-wrenching book. Each chapter deals with Ziegler’s life as a mother: raising her daughter, letting her grow into her own person, enduring the ups and downs of the ever-complicated mother-daughter relationship, and the illness that changed their family. At the time of her daughter’s diagnosis in 2014, only four states had passed “death with dignity” acts, so Brittany made plans to move from their home state of California to Oregon to end her life on her terms without unnecessary suffering. Ziegler gracefully walks the line between eulogizing her child and letting the reader in on the ugly side of how a brain tumor destroys a person. The author shares her grief, struggles with faith, feelings about the American medical system, and her own emotions about her daughter’s choice, all without cynicism or a heavy hand. In the end, she becomes a proponent of a terminal patient’s right to choose when to die, and assists in the battle for legal changes in California. Occasionally Ziegler leans on clichés to deliver her message, but they are not overly distracting, and sprinkled throughout are websites and important nuggets of information for those faced with similar situations.