In a cultural moment hungry for honest stories about love, loss, and how we navigate the spaces in between, debut author Erica Baccus delivers a luminous, heartbreaking memoir that may just change the way we talk about the end of life.
What does it mean to keep a promise when the person you love most is slipping away? In A Promise Kept: Honoring His Wishes, Embracing My Own, first-time author Erica Baccus answers that question with staggering vulnerability, unflinching honesty, and the kind of love that doesn’t flinch in the face of goodbye. Released on September 30, 2025 by independent publisher Soul Sparks Press Publishing, A Promise Kept traces the arc of Erica’s 41-year love story with her late husband, John Baccus, and the devastating choice they made, together, when John asked Erica to help him end his life following an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
When Erica met John Baccus, it was destiny wrapped in laughter, globe-trotting, and decades of quiet devotion. She was the effervescent adventurer; he, the steady heartbeat who never said no. Together, they lived a full, rich life, until Alzheimer’s came knocking.
But even in the shadow of decline, John had one last request. A bold one. A heartbreaking one: Help me go while I still remember I love you.
Already drawing early praise for its emotional depth and bold vulnerability, A Promise Kept was declared as a Critically Acclaimed Best Seller by The Los Angeles Tribune.
A Promise Kept is meditation on love in its most expansive form: the kind that dances across continents, survives time, and says yes even when everything inside you wants to say no.
A Marriage Full of Love and Yeses
From the moment Erica met John, their story unfolded like a novel you never want to end. She was vivacious, endlessly curious, and determined to see the world. He was steady, supportive, and quietly brilliant, the kind of man who built dreams quietly and caught her every time she jumped. For four decades, they shared the kind of life most people only dream of: full of travel, family, inside jokes, and the kind of simple moments that slowly stitch two souls into one.
But love, as A Promise Kept so beautifully reveals, is not always about forever. Sometimes, it’s about having the strength to let someone choose how their story ends. When Alzheimer’s came for John, a diagnosis that slowly unraveled his memory and identity, he made one final, devastating request: would Erica help him say goodbye, on his terms?
She said yes.
A Memoir That Opens the Conversation Most Are Afraid to Have
With remarkable clarity and a touch of grace that feels hard-earned, Erica takes readers through the final chapter of their shared life. Through the heartbreak of watching John fade. Through the ethical and emotional maze of assisted suicide. Through the quiet courage it takes to sit beside someone you love as they leave this world.
In telling their story, A Promise Kept steps into a space many avoid: the intersection of love and mortality, autonomy and grief, devotion and release. It’s a story about how we choose to live, right up until the very last breath.
Rewriting the End: One Woman’s Way Through Love and Loss
In a time when assisted suicide remains one of the most polarizing and politicized issues across the globe, A Promise Kept doesn’t preach. Erica simply tells one story, her story. About her marriage. Her heart. Her Husband’s heart.
One reader reviewed, “So many emotions from this book but it’s so beautiful.” (Amazon).
As public discourse increasingly turns toward patient rights, aging with dignity, and redefining what it means to die well, Erica’s memoir enters the conversation with her own experiences and tone that are deeply human, emotionally intelligent, and fearless.
About the Author
Erica Baccus began her writing journey not as a lifelong author, but as a grieving wife compelled to speak the truth of love, loss, and autonomy. After the death of her husband, John, she turned to the page instinctively, writing daily for nearly a year. What began as a private act of healing became a powerful memoir that now invites others into one of life’s most difficult, and most human, conversations: how we die.
A Promise Kept is Erica’s first published work of creative nonfiction. Written with unflinching honesty and deep compassion, her memoir reflects a lived experience few speak of openly: what it means to help a loved one die on their own terms when dementia steals both memory and control. Her reflections have sparked conversations across communities, drawing interest from grief counselors, caregivers, and policy advocates alike. Following her husband’s death, she became an informal resource for families navigating similar paths, often referred by medical professionals to offer insight, comfort, and advocacy.
Before her work as a writer and speaker, Erica built a respected career in qualitative market research. In 1996, she founded her own consulting firm, which served global clients including HP, Nvidia, Dell, Microsoft, and Nokia. She retired in 2011 after selling the company to her employees—a legacy she remains proud of for the careers it nurtured and the ideas it helped shape.
Today, Erica continues to speak openly about end-of-life autonomy, the limitations of “Right to Die” laws in the U.S., and the emotional complexities that come with choosing dignity over decline. She believes storytelling is a form of service—and that honest stories like hers can help light the way for others.
When she isn’t writing or speaking, Erica enjoys skiing, golfing, traveling, and capturing the world through the lens of her camera.
Book Information
Title: A Promise Kept: Honoring His Wishes, Embracing My Own
Author: Erica Baccus
Publisher: Soul Sparks Press Publishing
Publication Date: September 30, 2025
Format: Paperback, eBook
ISBN: B0FP6XR44V
Available at: Amazon and wherever books are sold
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