Moonlight in the Desert of Left Behind: A Journey of Love, Terminal Illness, and Hope

Newly married, writer Jan Baumgartner and her husband, John, pack up their home and busy lives in San Francisco trading the city verve for a quieter one along the rural coast of Maine. Looking forward to a slower pace, a life intertwined with nature, and greater opportunities to satiate their wanderlust for world travel, the couple buys a rambling Victorian house on the shores of Eggemoggin Reach, excited to begin this new chapter of their lives. But just a few years later, they receive the unexpected and devastating news that her husband is terminally ill with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In their 30s and 40s, in a place not quite yet home, without family or closest friends nearby, and facing a crippling disease that will leave him paralyzed from the neck down, the author chronicles the heartbreak and depth of their love as she struggles with the emotional and physical challenges as a full-time caregiver for her dying husband. Throughout the journey, she finds an unexpected source of inspiration in her travels to Africa, with and without John, a healing connection with the bounty of nature surrounding their coastal home, and her determination to one day return to her beloved Africa. From the rugged isolation of the Maine coast to the wilds of the African bush, Moonlight in the Desert of Left Behind is a poignant and often heartrendingly candid story of devotion, courage, and ultimately, hope.