Finding peace in the 'last room' of life, with memoirist Amy Low

Amy Low was a recently divorced mom with two teenage kids when she received some of the worst news a person can hear. She had stage four metastatic colon cancer and a large tumor on her liver with a very low chance of long-term survival. Against the odds, Amy has lived five years with her diagnosis, and the experience has changed her. Incredibly, Amy used this time to write her memoir, a beautiful book, The Brave In-Between: Notes From the Last Room.

The "last room" refers to Amy's way of thinking about our lives as rooms that we move through. We will all find ourselves in that last room at some point, though most of us won't know we are in it. For Amy, it is an opportunity to find the "mundane miracles" in each day. This is a heart-stretching book in which Amy shows us what it looks like to move with resilience and grace through the most difficult and uncertain times. It's a sacred invitation to delve into the depths of the human condition.

Amy and I went into some deep and at times challenging topics. In this interview, she talks about faith and forgiveness, and why she considers herself a "bridge dweller": a person who builds connections with many different types of people from all backgrounds and identities. This episode was recorded in advance of the 2024 election, as the Kamala Harris campaign was in its early days, and she and I were both hopeful of a Democratic win. Amy, who considers herself a liberal Christian, candidly shares her feelings about how American Christianity has changed over the years and how she hopes it might evolve back toward its ideals of love and inclusion.

Of course, we also got into some shop talk about the writing process, which in Amy's case was complicated by the progression of her disease. She is a stalwart writer and an inspiration to anyone who wants to tell their story but feels daunted by the task!

This is a thought-provoking conversation that will inspire you to find the mundane miracles in your life and the courage to share your story with the world.

Find her at:
Amy's Substack, Postcards from the Mountain
Instagram: @amylow112

And find host Maggie Langrick at:
Maggie's Substack, The Underwire
Website: maggielangrick.com
Instagram: @maggielangrick