Reviewed by Bernadette Longu for Readers' Favorite

The Truth About Butterflies: A Memoir by Nancy Stephan is one of the most moving books I have read in a long time. As adults and parents, we always expect our kids to bury us but when we have to bury a child we fall to pieces that seem never to be able to come back together. The author takes the reader on a journey about how hard it is to accept that your child is slowly dying and there is nothing you can do about it. Especially when you face prejudices: Doctors who are more interested in if you can pay; doctors who really take no interest in their patients, and doctors who start with pre-conceived ideas. Those are some of the facts that the author brings to light.

The Truth About Butterflies is a must-read for any parent of children who are both healthy or with health problems. I found it made me realize that when your children have to bury you they will go through the same emotions and feelings, especially missing the companionship and the fact that you could pick up the phone just to chat and that is now all gone. This is a most incredible book about death and dying and Nancy Stephan has written it with the most beautiful sensitivity and grace but not hiding the anger and pain experienced.

The Truth About Butterflies is that butterflies are caterpillars and caterpillars are butterflies. Such is life and death. Thank you, Nancy, for a lovely but heart-wrenching book. I really enjoyed reading it and shed many tears with you. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It brings to light how lonely it can be when you are waiting for someone to pass and how isolating it can be when you have no one nearby or no real family anymore. I found it to be a page-turner from start to finish. It helped me with some of my own feelings as well. This is definitely a book you will read from cover to cover. A beautiful, soul-searching read.