Most of us believe it takes a lifetime to live a life. Yet barely halfway through, and Jud Gerard learned that this was going to be for him pretty much the whole ball of wax—not enough time left to even start to address the failures he felt so keenly.

Coming Home Again is, in part, an account of how Jud went about dealing with the premature closure of his life. But far more, it is the story of how his friends managed to stare a reflection of their own mortality straight in the eye long enough to support their friend on his journey home.