About the Author

David Iverson is a writer, documentary film producer/director, and retired broadcast journalist. During his career, he produced and reported more than 20 documentary specials for PBS, including the Frontline film, My Father, My Brother and Me, which explored his family's battle with Parkinson's disease, and the national Emmy award-winning The Thirty Second Candidate. Iverson was a radio and television host for 35 years, first at Wisconsin Public Broadcasting and then at San Francisco's NPR affiliate KQED. He's also served as a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. He's currently a contributing editor at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, where he was a founding member of the foundation's Patient Council. Winter Stars is Iverson's first book.

Reviews

Winter Stars is a gift - a modern classic of frontier literature documenting the uncertain journey into the country of caregiving. That Dave walked this path while himself living with neurological illness is remarkable, but his story will resonate with everyone who has grappled up close with a parent or loved one's end of life. Adelaide Iverson comes through on the page as vividly as she must have in life - this is a portrait that would do any mother proud. I'm grateful to Dave for sharing his fresh and honest take on sickness and health, mothers and sons, and the deeply sustaining bonds of familial love. - Michael J. Fox This account of a loving son taking care of his mother in her final years is beautiful, moving, and so full of the spirit of the woman at its center that readers will feel they knew her. Dave Iverson has written the kind of memoir people will buy in quantity, to have on hand to give friends when they-and their parents-arrive at life's most difficult juncture. Honest, comforting, and true, Winter Stars is a testament to the power of family love. Ann Packer, best-selling author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier and Songs Without Words. My former PBS colleague Dave Iverson, whom I have known as a gifted broadcaster and filmmaker, decided at age 59 to move in with and care for his equally determined 95-year-old mother, whose dementia was eroding her quick wit and intelligence. Winter Stars recounts Dave's caregiving odyssey, which, over ten years, broke open his heart. The resulting memoir is a love story you won't soon forget. -Elizabeth Farnsworth, former chief correspondent for The PBS NewsHour and author of "A Train Through Time." Dave Iverson is like a friend who's been to a place you'd rather not go, but likely will: caring for an elderly parent. His caregiving memoir Winter Stars shows you around with honesty and humor. At age 59 he moved into his childhood home and took care of his mother for ten years, plenty of time for fearsome decision-making, happy and sad surprises and new depths of love. Your own caregiving experience will vary, and Iverson's gentle guidance is invaluable. - Sheila Himmel, author of Changing the Way We Die and Hunger: A Mother and Daughter fight Anorexia