Suzy McNamara

AUTHOR | SPEAKER | CAREGIVING & GRIEF ADVOCATE

Author, “The Silkworm, The Magician, and The Sister Tree: A Tale of Love and Loss”

Suzy McNamara is the author of The Silkworm, The Magician, and The Sister Tree, a deeply human exploration of caregiving, grief, faith, and enduring love.

A poet, mother of four, fundraiser, lawyer, Secular Carmelite, and widow, Suzy writes for those navigating loss and the often invisible weight of caring for someone they love.

In 2024, Suzy lost her husband of 37 years, Bob McNamara, to Posterior Cortical Atrophy, an aggressive form of early-onset Alzheimer’s, after caring for him at home for five years. Months earlier, her sister and lifelong best friend, Elizabeth Muslin, died from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. These overlapping losses shape her perspective and inform her writing. Suzy’s work offers particular insight into early-onset Alzheimer’s, where illness dismantles identity during years when marriages, careers, friendships, and family life are often at their most active. She writes honestly about the daily realities of caregiving, including isolation, exhaustion, and the quiet labor of preserving dignity, countering shame, and holding onto meaning amid uncertainty.

Suzy believes grief is a lonely sport, and survival depends on community, shared language, and the courage to name what is often left unsaid.

Grounded in sustaining faith practices, she writes to walk alongside readers as they navigate their own losses.

Suzy continues to find meaning through her lifelong love of books, movies, and music, interests she once shared with her husband and sister and now shares with her children and the wider community she has built.