About
Deborah Shouse is a writer, editor, laughter yoga facilitator, and dementia advocate. She has an MBA but uses it only in emergencies.
Deborah’s essays have appeared in dozens of national publications, including MS, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, Family Circle, The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, and Newsweek.
When Deborah’s mother was living with Alzheimer’s, Deborah wrote about her family’s journey, authoring two books, Love in the Land of Dementia and Connecting in the Land of Dementia. Working with medical professionals and care partners, Deborah and her life partner Ron presented their stories and workshops globally, from Italy to India, from Chile to Costa Rica.
She has been featured in many anthologies, including dozens of Chicken Soup books. For years, she wrote a Love Story column for The Kansas City Star and facilitated the newspaper’s book club. Deborah is co-facilitator of the Kansas City Writers Group and a former Writer’s Place board member.
During the pandemic, she wrote her debut novel, An Old Woman Walks Into a Bar. In July 2021, Deborah’s life was upended when older daughter suddenly died of a drug overdose. Gradually, though, Deborah began to write. The result was her book, Letters from the Ungrateful Dead: A Grieving Mom’s Correspondence with her Deceased Adult Daughter.
Featured Work
Letters From the Ungrateful Dead
Grieving the death of her adult daughter, Deborah Shouse follows her grief therapist’s advice to seek healing by writing letters to her girl. And then, her daughter writes back…
Letters from the Ungrateful Dead offers hope and catharsis for those who are grieving and for those whose loved ones struggle with addiction and mental health challenges. This book is a raw, authentic, and humor-laden true story of a living mother and her dead daughter reaching out to each other and resolving their differences, through a vibrant post-death correspondence.
Despite the somber subject, the letters are laced with laughter. Deborah and Hilee write about grief, spirituality, addiction, mental health, their mother-daughter relationship, various family dynamics, along with show tunes, ex-husbands and boyfriends, and Diet Coke and chocolate.#
