In this moving and compassionate classic, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts — of wisdom, faith, and love — that the dying leave for the living to share. Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.
+ 278 pages
This National Book Award Winner and national bestseller addresses issues in end-of-life care and includes an afterword that discusses how we can take control of our own final days and those of our loved ones. Each of us will die in a way that is different from anyone else's death. Behind each death is a story. Sherwin B. Nuland (1930-2014) was a surgeon and a teacher of medicine. In this book, he gave us portraits of the experience of dying that makes clear the choices we can make to allow us our own death.
Risé was working in the Crown Center library, so I went in to speak to her. While we were talking, Harry came in to get a book, which they must have talked about, since she handed it to him. It was the first book above (Final Gifts), and while we were talking, I noticed the second book (How We Die) among the nonfiction on the counter. Risé said she recommends both books, so Harry checked out one and I checked out the other; we agreed to swap books after we finish the ones we had in hand.
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Two related books I've written about in the past on this blog are:
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