"Samantha Albert's memoir glitters with joyful love, humour, and grace beyond measure. It is not just a delight to read, it is a literary gift." -Alison Wearing, bestselling author of Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter

"The last time I thought I was dying, I made pickles."

So opens Samantha Albert's powerful, tenderly humorous memoir of a life lived in the shadow of death.

Like most young couples, Sam and her husband had plans and dreams: fulfilling careers, a beautiful home, a baby or two, family camping trips. Everything was going according to plan until a single sentence overturned their world:

"I have your results back."

Sam's rare, life-threatening illness devastated both her body and her plans. Over the ensuing two decades, she managed to outlive dire prognoses again and again. But she also became a stunning embodiment of grace who chose to offer kindness in every gesture and exchange. To use her strength to make others laugh. To weave her love into a tapestry of beauty. And to make pickles.

I Met Death on the Avenue Road Bus is not a book about illness but rather an answer to the question so many people must face: How do we live the life we have rather than the one we hoped for?