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How I Lost My Mother: A story of life, care and dying
By Leslie Swartz. 2021
How I Lost My Mother is a deeply felt account of the relationship between a mother and son, and an…
exploration of what care for the dying means in contemporary societyThe book is emotionally complex – funny, sad and angry – but above all, heartfelt and honest. It speaks boldly of challenges faced by all of us, challenges which are often not spoken about and hidden, but which deserve urgent attention. This is first and foremost a work of the heart, a reflection on what relationships mean and should mean. There is much in the book about relationships of care and exploitation in southern Africa, and about white Jewish identity in an African context. But despite the specific and absorbing references to places and contexts, the book offers a broader, more universal view. All parents of adult children, and all adults who have parents alive, or have lost their parents, will find much in this book to make them laugh, cry, think and feel.
Thy Son Liveth: Messages from a World War I Soldier to His Mother from the Afterlife
By Grace Duffie Boylan, Prof. Gary E Schwartz. 2014
A message of comfort for grieving readers, this remarkable story recounts a mother's supernatural contact with a son who perished…
on a Flanders battlefield during World War I. Its simple message, as expressed in one of the soldier's communications, is that "There is no death. Life goes on without hindrance or handicap. The one thing that troubles the men who come here is the fact that the ones that loved them are in agony."Originally published anonymously, this incredibly moving and insightful book served as the basis for the 2000 movie A Rumor of Angels, starring Vanessa Redgrave. This edition features a new Introduction by Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D.
The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature (Routledge Literature Companions)
By Neil Murphy, Daniel K. Jernigan, W. Michelle Wang. 2021
The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature seeks to understand the ways in which literature has engaged deeply with the…
ever-evolving relationship humanity has with its ultimate demise. It is the most comprehensive collection in this growing field of study and includes essays by Brian McHale, Catherine Belling, Ronald Schleifer, Helen Swift, and Ira Nadel, as well as the work of a generation of younger scholars from around the globe, who bring valuable transnational insights. Encompassing a diverse range of mediums and genres – including biography and autobiography, documentary, drama, elegy, film, the novel and graphic novel, opera, picturebooks, poetry, television, and more – the contributors offer a dynamic mix of approaches that range from expansive perspectives on particular periods and genres to extended analyses of select case studies. Essays are included from every major Western period, including Classical, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and so on, right up to the contemporary. This collection provides a telling demonstration of the myriad ways that humanity has learned to live with the inevitability of death, where “live with” itself might mean any number of things: from consoling, to memorializing, to rationalizing, to fending off, to evading, and, perhaps most compellingly of all, to escaping. Engagingly written and drawing on examples from around the world, this volume is indispensable to both students and scholars working in the fields of medical humanities, thanatography (death studies), life writing, Victorian studies, modernist studies, narrative, contemporary fiction, popular culture, and more.
When Treatment Fails: How Medicine Cares For Dying Children
By David J. Bearison. 2006
Medical care of the terminally ill is one of the most emotionally fraught and controversial issues before the public today.…
As medicine advances and technologies develop, end-of-life care becomes more individualized and uncertain, guided less by science and more by values and beliefs. The crux of the controversy is when to withhold or withdraw curative treatments--when is enough, enough? Political debates rage about when treatment is no longer effective; difficult cases are contested in courts; and the media devour the most sensational aspects of end-of-life care. In all this excitement and controversy, what is sadly overlooked is the extreme pressure that care of the terminally ill puts on medical staff as they deal with patients and their families and make life-or-death decisions. That pressure--the psychological strain and continuing uncertainties--is magnified when the patients are children. David Bearison looks at this controversial issue from the perspective of the medical staff caring for dying children. Not just doctors, but nurses and counselors as well. By capturing their stories--as no other book has, Bearison is able to move beyond broad, abstract ideas about end-of-life care to convey the situated contexts of such care, including the complications, disagreements, frustrations, confusions, and unexpected setbacks. In addition to a discussion of questions surrounding whether to withhold or withdraw curative treatments, When Treatment Fails explores the crucial concerns of those medical practitioners who care for dying children: education and training, relation with one another, communicating with patients and families, and finally, coping and moving on. Ultimately, the threads connecting these themes are the great costs and rewards of this difficult work, and the lessons that can be drawn from the nitty-gritty experiences of medical practitioners who struggle to find the balance between trying to defeat death and trying to provide comfort.
Grieving While Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow
By Breeshia Wade. 2021
An exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver.Most of us understand grief as…
sorrow experienced after a loss—the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a change in life circumstance. Breeshia Wade approaches grief as something that is bigger than what's already happened to us—as something that is connected to what we fear, what we love, and what we aspire toward. Drawing on stories from her own life as a Black woman and from the people she has midwifed through the end of life, she connects sorrow not only to specific incidents but also to the ongoing trauma that is part and parcel of systemic oppression.Wade reimagines our relationship to power, accountability, and boundaries and points to the long-term work we must all do in order to address systemic trauma perpetuated within our interpersonal relationships. Each of us has a moral obligation to attend to our own grief so that we can responsibly engage with others. Wade elucidates grief in every aspect of our lives, providing a map back to ourselves and allowing the reader to heal their innate wholeness.
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
By Angus Deaton, Anne Case. 2020
A New York Times BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2020A New York Times Book…
Review Editors’ ChoiceShortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the YearA New Statesman Book to ReadFrom economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working classDeaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism are rising dramatically in the United States, claiming hundreds of thousands of American lives. Anne Case and Angus Deaton explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class. As the college educated become healthier and wealthier, adults without a degree are literally dying from pain and despair. Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labor, the growing power of corporations, and a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. This critically important book paints a troubling portrait of the American dream in decline, and provides solutions that can rein in capitalism's excesses and make it work for everyone.
Early winter: Learning to live, love and laugh again after a painful loss
By Howard Bronson. 2021
I am your parent, child, spouse, sibling, or friend . . . gone forever gone. I am not coming back.…
I will always know that you loved me. You will always know that I loved you. Just one small excerpt of this very powerful bereavement book. Based on the accidental death of the author's father due to a surgical mistake, Early Winter will help you to reconnect with your own feelings of loss and eventual acceptance. This book will make you laugh at times and cry at others as it takes you through the process of challenging loss and delivers you to a better place
Siamo resilienti
By Franklin A. Díaz Lárez. 2021
Un libro in cui vengono esposte le esperienze di alcune persone considerate veramente resilienti, che sono servite da modello ed…
esempio di superamento per milioni di persone nel mondo. In ingegneria si dice che la resilienza di un materiale sia la sua capacità di assorbire un impatto e di immagazzinare energia senza deformarsi. Per le neuroscienze, è il potenziale per affrontare una situazione avversa, superarla ed uscirne rafforzati. In psicologia si dice che è la capacità che le persone hanno di assumere circostanze traumatiche e di riprendersi. Superamento e recupero vanno mano nella mano. Questo libro espone le esperienze di alcune persone considerate veramente resilienti e che sono state un modello e un esempio di superamento per milioni di persone nel mondo. Vale a dire: Silvia Válori, Stephen Hawking, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Ismael Santos, Ana Frank, Ángel Sanz, Helen Keller, Kyle Maynard, Albert LLovera, The Hoyt Team, Kalpana Saroj, Pablo Pineda, Sean Maloney, Sara Navarro, Steve Jobs, Teresa Silva, Tim Guénard e Carlota Ruiz de Dulanto Include un importante elenco di libri consigliati con le loro sinossi esplicative.
A Quarter Glass of Milk: The rawness of grief and the power of the mountains
By Moire O'Sullivan. 2021
When Moire O’Sullivan’s husband, Pete, took his own life, she was left with a stark choice: to weep forever over…
the glass of milk that had just spilt or get on with the quarter that was still remaining. As Moire charts the first harrowing year after Pete’s death – the shock, the loneliness and the difficulties of single parenting two young children – she also experiences glimpses of hope and acceptance as she trains to become a mountain leader. The people she meets through the mountains, as well as the peace and wild beauty of the Mournes, help Moire discover her inner strength and prove she is not alone in her struggles. A year on from Pete’s death, Moire takes on a circuit of the Mournes: a winter run that reflects the dark struggles her husband went through, but which also shows the power of nature, and the healing support of community. A raw and insightful story of grief and renewal.
Fin de vie: Réflexions sur l’accompagnement des mourants
By Ann Richardson. 2021
Une mise en lumière des soins de fin de vie. La mort est un sujet gênant. Personne n'aime penser à…
ce que seront ses derniers jours. Mais s'il nous arrive d'y réfléchir, nous souhaitons qu'ils soient paisibles et tranquilles et nous voulons avoir la chance de pouvoir dire au revoir à nos proches. « Fin de vie : quand soigner est un privilège » vous entraîne dans les coulisses des soins palliatifs où vous vous rendrez compte des efforts énormes que font les infirmières, les médecins, les aumôniers et d'autres, y compris un chef cuisinier plein de bon sens, pour créer ce calme auquel nous aspirons tous. Peut-être vous intéressez-vous aux soins palliatifs pour un proche ? Peut-être vous demandez-vous si vous êtes fait pour travailler dans ce domaine ? Ou bien peut-être avez-vous simplement besoin d'être inspiré par le meilleur de l'humanité ? Ce livre est fait pour vous. VIVEMENT SALUÉ par la British Medical Association en 2008. « Des réflexions simples sur des sujets complexes dans le domaine des soins qui résonnent longtemps après en avoir terminé la lecture. » Newsletter du Cancer Nursing Forum, Royal College of Nursing « Un livre facile à lire qui surprendra de nombreux lecteurs par sa légèreté, son humanité et son ton rafraîchissant. Je le conseillerais à toute personne qui s’inquiète de sa propre fin de vie ou de celle d’un proche. » Dr Nansi-Wynne Evans, généraliste, BMA Medical Book Competition
A Last Goodbye
By Elin Kelsey. 2020
How do we say goodbye to a loved one after they die? This book broaches a difficult topic in a…
heartfelt way by exploring the beauty in how animals mourn. From elephants to whales, parrots to bonobos, and lemurs to humans, we all have rituals to commemorate our loved ones and to lift each other up in difficult times. New from the award-winning team behind You Are Stardust, Wild Ideas, and You Are Never Alone, this book gently recognizes death as a natural part of life for humans and all animals. Written in spare, poetic language and illustrated with stunning dioramas, it draws out our similarities with other animals as it honors the universal experience of mourning. The touching and uplifting book ends on a hopeful note, showing how we live on both in memories and on the planet, our bodies nourishing new life in the Earth and the oceans.
One Thousand Days and One Cup of Tea: A Clinical Psychologists Experience of Grief
By Vanessa Moore. 2021
Vanessa's husband Paul dies suddenly and tragically on their regular Sunday morning swim. How will she cope with her dilapidated…
house, her teenage children, the patients who depend on her? Will therapy help? Why do mysterious white feathers start appearing in unexpected places? Beautifully written and honestly relayed, Vanessa uses her professional skills to explore the many questions posed by unanticipated death, and to try to find a way forwards."This book is about a period of great loss in my life, a time when the tables were completely turned on me. I was a qualified therapist who suddenly found myself needing psychological therapy. I was a trained researcher who became my own research subject, as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me. I was an experienced manager who now struggled to manage the events taking place in my own life. Yet, throughout all this turmoil, my patients were always there, in the background, reminding me that there are many different ways to deal with loss and trauma and search for a way forwards." Vanessa Moore
When It’s Time to Say Goodbye: Preparing for the Transition of Your Beloved Pet
By Angela Garner. 2021
Practical guidance and compassionate support for pet owners before, during, and after the death of a beloved companion animal •…
Explores how best to prepare for the death of your pet, including recognizing changes in your animal&’s well-being, palliative care at home, taking care of your pet&’s remains, ceremonies, and more • Offers practical exercises and activities, such as what to discuss with the vet when euthanasia is anticipated, how to retain a center of inner calm when making decisions, and how to find the courage to say goodbye when the time comes • Addresses the emotional components of the bereavement process--fears beforehand, guilt and anger afterward--and offers advice on self-care throughout Our pets are members of our families. The death or separation from a beloved animal friend--whether anticipated or unexpected--can unleash a roller coaster of emotions. In this compassionate guide based on 20 years' experience helping individuals and teaching veterinary professionals, Angela Garner offers practical support and guidance to help you prepare for your pet&’s death ahead of time, do your best by your animal friend when the time comes, and work through your grieving process afterward. The author explores how best to prepare for the death of your beloved pet, including recognizing changes in your pet&’s well-being, palliative care at home, taking care of your pet&’s remains, ceremonies, and more. She discusses natural death and euthanasia and offers exercises and activities to help you work through difficult issues, such as what to discuss with the vet and how to stay focused on your pet&’s welfare when euthanasia is anticipated. Sharing her own experiences and those of others, she explores practices to help you cope with fears and overwhelming emotions, retain a center of inner calm when making crucial decisions, and find the courage to say goodbye when it is time. Angela Garner also addresses the different emotional components of the bereavement process--fears beforehand and guilt and anger afterward--and includes a compassionate discussion about children and pet loss as well as how to support a grieving companion animal in the family. Offering step-by-step support throughout, this guide brings hope and reassurance that, while grief may feel insurmountable, you will come out the other side to once again reengage with life.
How to Survive Losing a Loved One: A Practical Guide to Coping with Your Partner’s Terminal Illness and Death, and Building the Next Chapter in Your Life
By Christine Pearson, Karen Jackson Taylor. 2020
A practical, empowering guide to navigating your partner's diagnosis of a terminal or life-limiting illness, or death. Receiving the news…
that your partner has a terminal or life-limiting illness, or has died unexpectedly, is among the worst experiences in life. At a time when you are least able to cope, you are faced with a multitude of difficult decisions, some of which must be made quickly. What you need is a friend who has experienced everything you are about to face, who can support you as you navigate some tough, important choices. This book is that friend. There is plenty of information out there but where to start looking? What information is needed and how can it be accessed? What decisions are essential in the immediate term and what can be left until later? Throughout the book, the emphasis is on protecting and supporting those left behind by presenting almost every choice you may need to make and the possible implications of each decision. You will learn:- The importance of creating a will, arranging power of attorney, organising advanced decisions of treatment, and even getting married or entering a civil partnership- What you are entitled to from the state, the NHS and your employer- How to stabilise your finances and prepare to run a household alone- Where your partner ought to be during treatment and/or palliative care, and how to go about achieving this- Which decisions need to be made after death, from planning the funeral to accessing your partner's estate- How to navigate the grieving process and take control of a happy future No matter where you are in the process, How to Survive Losing a Loved One is a comprehensive, practical and empowering guide to coping with your partner's terminal illness and death, and building the next chapter in your life.
The Forgotten Wife: A heartbreaking family drama with a stunning twist
By Emma Robinson. 2021
&‘I just loved this book so much. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would!... I absolutely…
love the way the story unfolds and the revelations are made. I laughed out loud, I gasped and I sobbed like a small child. Everything you could want from a book and more.&’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ When you see them, they are so happy, so in love. He&’s holding the door open for her, she&’s clearly expecting a baby. You think: she has everything I don&’t. Everything I ever dreamed of…There&’s room in her house where Shelley has shut away a heartbreakingly-soft, never-used baby blanket. In a box, under a bed, behind a door that she never opens. If it&’s there, she can forget about it. Just like she has her memories. Of a marriage that hadn&’t been perfect. Of a life that didn&’t go the way she had hoped.Every day she acts like everything is normal. Going to work and following a routine helps her pretend the bad stuff never happened. Until one day, everything changes.She sees the couple moving in next door, laughing sweetly as they walk up the path to their new home. The woman is pregnant. It&’s like she has everything that Shelley has lost. But when Shelley properly meets Lara, she soon discovers Lara is actually carrying a heartache to match her own.As her friendship with Lara deepens, Shelley starts to wonder what might happen if she opens the box she&’s hidden away, with the tiny, beautiful blanket in it. Will the secrets from her past – about what she lost, what she&’s hiding from, and what she has been doing her best to forget – destroy her? Or will opening it up finally give her a chance to live again?A heartbreaking emotional drama about the power of friendship that will make readers laugh and cry, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Dani Atkins and Daniela Sacerdoti.Readers are loving The Forgotten Wife:&‘Emotional and brilliant at the same time! I have laughed and shouted out loud and cried throughout the book. It is a brilliant read and very hard to put down.&’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐&‘OMG. OMG. OMG. The author made me cry. I still had a book hangover when I started writing this review. There was still a lingering lump in my throat all through the day… There are books which leave their wispy trails around you that remind you to find your happiness. This was one such book of friendship… Had me turning the pages slowly, living each word, feeling each emotion, laughing and crying with them.&’ Shalini&’s Books and Reviews⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ &‘Heartbreaking… If you read one book this year, make it this.&’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐&‘Oh wow, this wassuchan amazing and beautiful book!… Keep your tissues handy…
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
By Suleika Jaouad. 2021
A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman&’s journey from diagnosis to remission and,…
ultimately, a road trip of healing and self-discovery.&“A work of breathtaking creativity.&”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love&“Elegant and heartbreaking.&”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies&“Mended parts I thought were forever disintegrated.&”—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy&“A propulsive, soulful story of mourning and gratitude.&”—Tara Westover, author of EducatedIn the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter &“the real world.&” She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. It started with an itch—first on her feet, then up her legs, like a thousand invisible mosquito bites. Next came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only deepened her fatigue. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself had gone up in flames. By the time Jaouad flew home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times. When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward—after three and a half years of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant—she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it&’s where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal—to survive. And now that she&’d done so, she realized that she had no idea how to live. How would she reenter the world and live again? How could she reclaim what had been lost? Jaouad embarked—with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt—on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who&’d spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.
It Tolls For Thee: A guide to celebrating and reclaiming the end of life
By Tom Morton. 2021
A funeral celebrant's story about how celebrating death, and creating personalised space for grief, can enrich lives and give meaning…
to death.After a close encounter with death, Tom Morton realised he needed a change of pace and perspective. He decided to become the only independent funeral celebrant on the remote Shetland Islands, an unusual new profession that would lead him on an extraordinary journey into the world of the dead. In a vivid narrative that reveals the fascinating realm of the unspoken - from extraordinary undertakers and death cafés, to pilgrimages and taboos - Tom quickly learns that death and speaking for the dead requires you to think on your feet and often take a magpie approach to faith and philosophy. From Humanism to hymns, Theravada Buddhism to Star Wars theology, he discovers the importance of ritual, humour, and the empowering act of trying to find words for something beyond language itself.This is an accessible and thought-provoking guide to celebrating mortality. When grief must be an inevitable part of life, Tom shows how we can mourn together in a way that feels appropriate to the life of the one who has passed on, and ultimately cultivate a healthy attitude to our own eventual demise.
From Diane Rehm, renowned radio host--one of the most trusted voices in the nation--and best-selling author: a book of candor…
and compassion, addressing the urgent, hotly contested cause of the Right-to-Die movement, of which she is one of our most inspiring champions.Soon to be a public television documentary of the same name, featuring the author.Through interviews with terminally ill patients, and with physicians, ethicists, spouses, relatives, and representatives of those who vigorously oppose the movement, Rehm gives voice to a broad range of people who are personally linked to the realities of medical aid in dying. The book presents the fervent arguments--both for and against--that are propelling the current debates across the nation about whether to adopt laws allowing those who are dying to put an end to their suffering. With characteristic even-handedness, Rehm skillfully shows both sides of the argument, providing the full context for this highly divisive issue.With a highly personal foreword by John Grisham, When My Time Comes is a response to many misconceptions and misrepresentations of end-of-life care; it is a call to action--and to conscience--and it is an attempt to heal and soothe our hearts, reminding us that death, too, is an integral part of life.
El camino de las lágrimas
By Jorge Mauricio Bucay. 2001
Una exploración íntima de una de las situaciones más complejas de la existencia humana: la pérdida de un ser querido.…
Las perdidas forman parte de nuestra vida, son constantes universales e ineludibles. Y las llamamos perdidas necesarias porque crecemos a través de ellas. De hecho, somos quienes somos gracias a todo lo perdido y a como nos hemos conducido frente a esas pérdidas. Por supuesto que seguir el camino de las lágrimas nos pone en un clima diferente del que podemos encontrar al recorrer el camino de la autodependencia o el del encuentro. Pero este camino es el que nos enseña a aceptar el vínculo vital que existe entre las pérdidas y las adquisiciones. Este camino señala que debemos renunciar a lo que ya no está, y que eso es madurar. Asumiremos al recorrerlo que las pérdidas tienden a ser problemáticas y dolorosas, pero solo a través de ellas nos convertimos en seres humanos plenamente desarrollados. El camino de las lágrimas es un clásico del desarrollo personal, referencia para todos aquellos que han sufrido el dolor de una pérdida, y un verdadero mapa que acompaña y reconforta al lector en la dolorosa transición que viene con dejar ir.
Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction
By Dave Kindred. 2021
Dave Kindred's extraordinary investigation of the death of his grandson yields a powerful memoir of addiction, grief, and the stories…
we choose to tell our families and ourselvesJared Kindred left his home and family at the age of eighteen, choosing to wander across America on freight train cars and live on the street. Addicted to alcohol most of his short life, and withholding the truth from many who loved him, he never found a way to survive.Through this ordeal, Dave Kindred's love for his grandson has never wavered.Leave Out the Tragic Parts is not merely a reflection on love and addiction and loss. It is a hard-won work of reportage, meticulously reconstructing the life Jared chose for himself--a life that rejected the comforts of civilization in favor of a chance to roam free.Kindred asks painful but important questions about the lies we tell to get along, and what binds families together or allows them to fracture. Jared's story ended in tragedy, but the act of telling it is an act of healing and redemption. This is an important book on how to love your family, from a great writer who has lived its lessons.