🌿 A Living Remedy – Story of Love, Loss & Systemic Flaws

1. Grieving Under the Weight of Capitalism Chung’s memoir centers on the back-to-back losses of her adoptive parents—her father to kidney failure (compounded by untreated diabetes), and her mother to late-stage ovarian cancer amid the early pandemic. Both deaths weren’t just personal tragedies; they became indictments of America’s fractured healthcare system. Chung describes her father’s passing as “a kind of negligent homicide,” spotlighting how decades of inadequate insurance and constant financial precarity forced him into crisis care apalaweb.org +14 teenvogue.com +14 npr.org +14 . 2. Class & Healthcare Injustice Raised in rural Oregon, Chung recognizes that her family’s semblance of middle-class life was actually “emergency to emergency.” Her father and mother navigated a patchwork of low-paying, insecure jobs and insufficient benefits, repeatedly denied Medicaid or disability aid until crisis struck kirkusreviews.com +4 npr.org +4 npr.org +4 . This memoir exposes how illness deepens economic inequality: “sickness and grief throw wealthy and poor families alike into upheaval, but they do not transcend the gulfs between us,” she writes kirkusreviews.com +1 washingtonpost.com +1 . 3. Daughter, Wife, Mother, Alone in Between Living across the country with her own young family, Chung is torn between caring for her husband and daughters and being present for her parents. Pandemic travel restrictions solidify this divide: she never witnesses her mother’s dying breath. The isolation echoes the broader failure of a society that offers emotional no-bid aid, not systemic support npr.org +9 washingtonpost.com +9 hub.jhu.edu +9 . 4. The Guilt of Survival & Distance Chung wrestles with what she calls “the specific, hollow guilt of those who leave hardship behind, yet are unable to bring anyone else with them” npr.org +3 npr.org +3 startribune.com +3 . Though she built a more secure life, it came at the cost of physical and emotional distance from her parents—distance that became a silent source of distress. 5. Finding a Way Forward Amid grief, Chung finds solace in what she terms a “living remedy”: memory, ritual, community, and the simple, grounding presence of her golden retriever Peggy time.com +13 teenvogue.com +13 apalaweb.org +13 . Through intimate reflection, she redefines mourning as a persistent practice of remembering—an act that keeps her parents’ love alive and honors their legacy. Why A Living Remedy Resonates Brutal civic critique: The book transforms personal grief into a sharp, urgent commentary on healthcare inequality. Emotional universality: Loss, guilt, love, and the ache of distance are portrayed with raw honesty. Blends memoir with social reckoning: Chung doesn’t just tell her story—she challenges readers to question collective responsibility.