In the fall of 1998, George Cantor and his wife sent off their 18-year-old daughter Courtney to the University of Michigan as a freshman. Six weeks later, the university called Cantor to claim her corpse. Courtney fell from her 6th-floor dormitory window after being served drinks illegally at a fraternity party. In Cantor's grief over losing Courtney, he sank into a bitter and prolonged depression that led him to question the value of his own life and newspaper career. This ended after a year when he was diagnosed with cancer, at which point the value of life suddenly and stunningly was renewed. Cantor elequenty unfolds his and Courtney's story, revealing that learning that acceptance of the past and celebration of the present is the only way to endure in our increasingly complex world.