"Because We Must is a riveting and heart-rending account of resilience in the face of unthinkable loss. Tracy Youngblom has created a masterpiece of fierce honesty and remarkable restraint, leaving the reader in awe of her wisdom and artistry."—Helen Fremont, author of The Escape Artist and After Long Silence

"What happens when a sudden tragedy irrevocably alters your child’s future and you find yourself a foreigner in your own life? With a mother’s fierceness and a poet’s sensibility, Tracy Youngblom writes about her twenty-three-year-old son’s senseless accident and the complex moments of recovery when he nearly slipped from this world. This honest and gripping memoir, full of psychological insight and compassion, will stay with readers long after the last page is turned."—Cynthia Blakeley, author of The Innermost House

"Deeply intelligent, fiercely tender, Tracy Youngblom’s revelatory memoir explores the complexities of loving and letting go in the wake of her son’s life-changing accident. We ache and rejoice as Youngblom brings to life tense hospital vigils, celebratory milestones, and the ever-shifting but enduring bonds between mother and son in this masterful work of storytelling. This is a book you’ll want to keep on your shelf and return to again and again."—Annie Kim, author of Eros, Unbroken

"The messy irrevocability of a car crash propels the narrative of Because We Must, but it is in the scrupulously observed spaces in-between where—like a conductor inserting a necessary pause into a piece of music—Tracy Youngblom strikes the deepest chords. With a poet’s attention to language (occasionally parsing a single word to illuminating effect), we journey with her as she probes an accident that proved 'a portal that forced us into a new life.' Marvelous."—James Silas Rogers, author of Northern Orchards: Places Near the Dead

“In this riveting memoir, Tracy Youngblom relates, with precision and candor, the unthinkable aftermath of her son’s car accident caused by a drunk driver. She makes palpable her son’s extraordinary courage and grace, as well as her own fierce struggle to remain steady and hopeful as she and her family navigate a whirlwind of emotions and practical challenges during Elias’ first years of recovery.”—Marcia Pelletiere, author of A Crown of Hornets

“Because We Must is a lyrical, yet agonized guide to what it was like for author Tracy Youngblom to almost lose her young (in his twenties) son to the very definition of a senseless accident. For her, the task of taking care for Elias turned out to be twofold: one, the obvious, ensuring the medical attention he was too weak to ensure for himself, and second—here is where the true balletic movement occurs—the need to respect his boundaries and forge her own. The result is a tribute to the beauty and the power of the parent-child bond, devoid of sentimentality and full of heart.”—Madeleine Blais is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble and In These Girls Hope is a Muscle