Dotty Holcomb Doherty's quietly heroic tale of two women’s voyages through disease and dying, interwoven with voyages upon Chesapeake creeks that offer comfort and grace. Janet, a young mother, had months to live, doctors said in 1989. She and her husband would overcome staggering odds for 20 more years. Author Dotty Holcomb Doherty, afflicted by MS in 2002, became kayak buddy, confidante and biographer to Janet, her account both unsparing and loving. With a naturalist’s eye, she frames their struggles with portraits of Chesapeake seasons, rhythms of migration and tide, the charms of water’s edge. As their bodies betrayed them, the Bay buoyed them as they buoyed one another.—Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay-based author and filmmaker.