Jeff’s Plants is a fictional novel inspired by real life events. It is a story that deals with complex grief, childhood trauma, narcissistic abuse, alcoholism, and more. This book is written for people who are dealing with grief, trying to remove themselves from dysfunctional or abusive relationships, and wanting to experience the gift of letting go.
"You can see death coming for years and still never be ready for it. I thought I was prepared to lose my father, but the moment cancer took Jeff was the beginning of an unraveling that could not have been foreseen.
My grief was complex. It uprooted parts of myself I had spent my whole life burying. I would also discover that everything I thought I knew about my family—what was left of it, anyway—was based on a lifetime of lies. I had been unknowingly playing a part in a long-game of deception. A game designed so that I could never win. Or so they thought.
I’ve named this story Jeff’s Plants because, in the end, the only thing I inherited from my father - the only tangible asset from his multi-million-dollar estate - was his plants. Plants that I risked my life twice to bring home. Plants that would become symbols of my rebirth."
Korva Keddie’s Jeff’s Plants: A Tale of Loss, Legacy and The Long Road Home is a story about grief, resilience, and the winding road toward radical healing. This book will touch your heart—and it also reads like a guide for how to pick yourself up when it feels impossible. Sometimes, the only way forward is to literally keep moving.
At its center is a long road trip, with pit stops, detours, and unexpected moments that mirror the ups and downs of healing. Keddie’s storytelling pulls the reader into a cross-country journey that becomes a discovery of how to live again after truths revealed in her father’s death shatter what she thought she knew.
By blending the physical landscape of the road with the interior terrain of grief, Keddie transforms highways, childhood haunts, and even quiet moments with a ghost into both setting and metaphor. The rhythm of travel reflects the stop-and-start nature of loss, reminding us that healing rarely unfolds in a straight line.
In the end, Keddie finds not only a new way of seeing the places she’s been, but also her relationships and her future self. What makes this story shine is its balance—tender without sentimentality, hopeful without rushing grief. Readers will see themselves in both her setbacks and bittersweet triumphs. Intimate, relatable, and restorative, Jeff’s Plants reminds us that the road home is long, unpredictable, and full of unexpected beauty.
Korva pairs her memoir with magical realism on par with the likes of Isabel Allende. I was transported with her on her adventure of a lifetime. I laughed and cried with Korva throughout the book and brought back some wisdom to the real world. Forgiveness is a gift for the giver. Anyone who has had a complicated relationship with another human should read this book. Anyone who has dealt with or is dealing with the loss of a parent should read this book. Anyone who knows something is happening about them behind closed doors, but can’t put their finger on what, should read this book!
Korva Keddie is a first-time author and long-time Pacific Northwest resident, mother, gardener, astrologer, artist, and storyteller with a deep connection to the natural world. She is endlessly passionate about politics and is a proud ally for any marginalized or oppressed peoples. Tiocfaidh do lá, Phalaistín
When she isn’t fighting the good fight, flaunting her gift of gab, she’s enjoying her family, growing her victory garden, watching her chickens, feeding her crows, and tending Jeff's Plants.
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