When Canrinus was 15, her mother barely survived an accident that totaled her car. A woman of extraordinary vitality, she awoke from months in a coma to struggle with suicidal depression, finally reaching a new normal defined by losses unimaginable to most. Brain damage on top of the inevitable friction between any mother and daughter almost guaranteed an end to a loving connection. Yet theirs endured and grew.

Kathleen, married and the mother of two daughters herself, became her mother's caregiver and conservator, silently adjusting to her own loss. She was puzzled by her mother's repeating how lucky she considered both of them to be. How could she?

The Lady with the Crown explores how unforeseen trauma can, in the blink of an eye, transform a normal happy family into a uniquely wounded one. It charts not only their resilience and courage but also Canrinus's indomitable pursuit and reinvention of joy.