The Great Read: How My Mother’s Dying Wish Took My Family to Antarctica
What I thought was a burden was a tether across death’s divide.
The New York Times
The Great Read

March 16, 2026, 2:01 p.m. Eastern time

On weekdays and Sundays, we recommend one piece of exceptional writing from The Times — a narrative or essay that takes you someplace you might not expect to go.

An illustration of a woman’s head among a glacial landscape.

Illustration by Dadu Shin

How My Mother’s Dying Wish Took My Family to Antarctica

What I thought was a burden was a tether across death’s divide.

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