The Hummingbird's Nest

About the Book

The Hummingbird’s Nest tells the story of a relationship between a mother, a writer in her 60s, and a daughter, an artist/lawyer in her early 30s who has also recently become a mother herself. Over the course of the story, the daughter is faced with multiple diagnoses of cancer and is given a poor prognosis. The daughter blames her mother for making her sick, while at the same time asking her mother to give her hope and the strength to go on. Through the telling of her own life story, the mother infuses her daughter with the understanding that, even though she is a cancer patient, she does have the strength to face her life as a wife, mother and professional woman. The hummingbird’s nest, which gives the book its title, is a metaphor for that place in our hearts where we feel safe despite the adversities that life throws in our path.

About the Author

Helen Malsed Dumas was a poet, actor and writer. Born in 1920, she epitomized the “Greatest Generation,” having served overseas in the Red Cross during World War II and having lived through the post-war years raising a family and working in high fashion advertising. Helen was also an actress and a poet. She died in 1999. Gretchen Dumas is an artist and lawyer living in Northern California. She contracted cancer at the age of 31, when her baby son was only 8 months old. After her initial cancer was removed, she suffered several recurrences and expected to die at a young age. Fortunately, however, for reasons that no doctor can explain, she ultimately survived and was able to care for her mother during the last years of her mother’s life. Gretchen became a grandmother in 2012.