Five Hours

How My Son's Brief Life Changed Everything

A mother’s “powerful and enlightening” memoir of losing a newborn to a rare genetic disorder, and the journey from grief to healing (Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly).

Lucinda Weatherby’s son Theo was born with trisomy 13, a rare chromosomal disorder with fatal birth defects. Rather than take extraordinary steps to prolong what would have been a short and painful life, Lucinda and her husband made the decision to let Theo go. In this brave and beautiful memoir, Lucinda tells the story of Theo’s life—a life that was bathed in the love of the family members and close friends who gathered in the predawn hours to welcome him and then say goodbye—and the profound sense of grace his existence bestowed upon all of those he touched.

Five Hours is also the story of a mother who is forced to confront every parent’s most terrifying fear: losing a child. With unflinching honesty and eloquence and even humor, Lucinda chronicles Theo’s life and death, and the inspiring aftermath of an experience most people think they wouldn’t be able to survive. All readers, whether parents or not, will be moved by her ability to confront a tragedy and transform it into something healing and transcendent.

“Illuminated with courage and humor, Lucinda Weatherby’s memoir explores what for any of us would be an unthinkable loss. Wake up to death, and to life, Weatherby writes of her struggle to find her way, to open to the unknown, to grace. . . . A moving glimpse into the human heart and the transcendent power of love over grief.” —Glenda Burgess, author of The Geography of Love

“With all the intimate honesty one might find in a diary, she allows us to see that she is not to be pitied, that she in fact sometimes feels herself to be the luckiest mother alive for having known five perfect hours with her son.” —Monica Wesolowska, author of Holding Silvan: A Brief Life