Works
The Meaning of Eli
1992, the San Francisco Bay Area. As narrated in his audio diary, Eli Walker, poet and professor, is mistreated by a desk clerk at Piedmont Hospital, who tells him nearby terminal illness support groups are full. Cate Reed, a pediatrician, gets the same reception. Both received diagnoses that morning. They commiserate. Cate suggests they function as their own support group; their families will insist they join a group. They don’t have to say the group is only them.
Each week one of them chooses a different location and experience. In twelve sessions, before their symptoms become significant, they search for what gave their lives meaning.
Along the way, they have adventures and fall in love.