Books


Swimming with Maya demonstrates the remarkable process of healing after the traumatic death of a loved one. Eleanor Vincent raised her two daughters, Maya and Meghan, virtually as a single-parent. Maya, the eldest, was a high-spirited and gifted young woman. As a toddler, Maya was an angelic tow-head, full of life and curiosity. As a teenager, Maya was her mother. But Eleanor and Maya were always close and connected, like best friends or sisters, but always also mother and daughter.

Then at age 19, Maya mounts a horse bareback as a dare and, in a crushing cantilever fall, is left in a coma from which she will never recover. Eleanor’s life is turned upside down as she struggles to make the painful decision about Maya’s fate.

Ultimately Eleanor chooses to donate Maya’s organs. Years later, she is able to hear Maya’s heart beat in the chest of the heart recipient. Along the way, Eleanor re-examines her relationship with her daughter, as well as Eleanor’s traumatic life as a child and young woman. In a story that has been called “heartbreaking and heart-healing,” Eleanor Vincent illuminates the kind of courage, creativity, faith, and sheer tenacity it takes to find one’s balance after unthinkable tragedy.

Heartbreaking and heart healing, this compelling story of surviving the death of a child will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.
—ELLEN BASS, author of The Courage to Heal and The Human Line

Anthologies


Impact Anthology

Impact: An Anthology of Short Memoirs

Telling Our Stories Press, 2012

“Lucia’s Birth” tells the story of how Eleanor entered grandmotherhood by assisting at her daughter’s labor, interwoven with flashbacks of her birth and growing up years, intercut with memories of Maya. Lucia’s entry into this world changed the way she felt about losing Maya.

Profoundly sensitive and intelligent, Impact offers the reader a wide range of aesthetic and personal perspectives.
– MARK SPENCER, author

This I Believe Anthology

This I Believe:
On Motherhood

Wiley, 2012

In this collection sixty essayists share, in intimate terms, what motherhood means to them. Eleanor’s essay, “The Gravity of Love,” shows how Maya’s death influenced the celebration of her sister’s wedding as seen through the eyes of the mother of the bride.

Heartwarming stories about motherhood and how mothers sacrifice for their families.
– AMAZON READER REVIEW

End of Life Anthology

At the End of Life: True Stories About How We Die

In Fact Books, 2012

Eleanor’s essay, “The Resurrection of Wonder Woman,” explores the emotional and ethical impact of organ donation from the perspective of a grieving mother. Maya’s organs and tissues ultimately saved four lives and improved countless others.

A gripping and passionate account of how we face the final rite of passage.
– DANIELLE OFRI, MD, PhD,
author of Medicine in Translation