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Dear Life
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
10 posts | 7 read | 13 to read
'What a remarkable book this is; tender, funny, brave, heartfelt, radiant with love and life. It brought me often to laughter and - several times - to tears. It sings with joy and kindness' Robert Macfarlane From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light and love in the darkest of places. As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable. Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world. Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter - to a father, to a profession, to life itself.
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quote
charl08
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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But when everything you have been and done and meant to the world is being prised from your grasp, human connections are the vital medicine. It is other people who make the difference.

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CourtSmall
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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Pickpick

Book 116/2022 Finished 9/6/22 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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review
rabbitprincess
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
Pickpick

A firm Pick. Recommended for readers of Being Mortal (Gawande) and With the End in Mind (Mannix). If you are able to read without glasses, that may be advisable; I found myself having to remove mine frequently to dry my eyes 😢

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Smrloomis
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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Pickpick

This book is phenomenal and should be read by everyone since we all have to die at some point. Beautiful, moving, and thoughtful, I cannot give it enough praise. Hope others will pick it up too. ❤️❤️❤️

squirrelbrain I completely agree with you. I read this because I started working at an end of life hospice 6 months ago (I‘m not patient-facing), where my MiL passed away a year ago. They made the experience much better than it could have been, hence why I wanted to work there. The book made me cry many times but was also uplifting. ❤️ 3y
Smrloomis @squirrelbrain congratulations on your new job. I couldn‘t agree more. This book was so, so good! 😭💓 3y
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Smrloomis
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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“The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest...”

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Smrloomis
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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“People, I would think that night, wrung out from all the crying, can be so exceptionally lovely.”

review
squirrelbrain
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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This memoir of a palliative care doctor whose own father is at end-of-life. was a tough read and I cried most of the way through it, but it will also be one of my books of the year.

I only wish I‘d read it before I had first-hand experience of hospice care earlier this year. That experience led me to my recent role working in the very same hospice, as I wanted to ensure other people could benefit from the same loving care that we did. ⬇️

squirrelbrain This quote really hit home: ‘The NHS funds only a third of hospice care in England. The rest are funded by charitable donations...Imagine the quality of our maternity services or trauma units being contingent on how many jumble sales hit their targets this week‘ 3y
JennyM Beautiful review, Helen ❤️ I‘ve heard only wonderful things about this read and I‘m glad it was special for you xx (edited) 3y
Josee.lit.a.lu.et.lira I read Being Mortal a few years back, I feel it is a similar contexte. It had a profound effect on me ❣️ 3y
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squirrelbrain Thanks @JennyM 😘 3y
squirrelbrain I‘d like to read that one too @Josee.a.lu.lit.et.lira - maybe not just yet though.... 3y
Josee.lit.a.lu.et.lira @squirrelbrain no, I did not mean to imply for you to read it & and certainly not so soon after. 3y
squirrelbrain No, I realise that you were not telling me to read it @Josee.a.lu.lit.et.lira - but I would still like to, sometime! 3y
JennyM I saw this and thought of you, Helen. It‘s been nominated for a Costa Book Award https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/24/costa-book... 3y
squirrelbrain That‘s lovely to know @JennyM - thank you! (I‘ve only read 2 of the other nominees....) 3y
JennyM @squirrelbrain I‘ve not read any!!! I‘m off to have a search for some of these now and add to the pile 3y
squirrelbrain I loved Life After Life and also really liked All The Water in the World @JennyM 3y
JennyM @squirrelbrain adding them! Thanks lovely x 3y
82 likes12 comments
review
Laru79
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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Finished this lovely book last night. It was a real insight into the world of palliative care and how Clarke dealt with her own father‘s death. I did have a couple of little cries while reading, but it was very life-affirming - a real reminder that we all are loved and can leave a legacy a love to be remembered. Well worth reading.

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jenniferw88
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
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IReadThereforeIBlog
Dear Life | Rachel Clarke
Pickpick

Rachel Clarke is a TV producer turned doctor who specialises in palliative care. In this deeply moving memoir that at times had me in tears and which made me reconsider my own attitudes towards dying, she talks about her journey towards and experiences in end-of-life care and what it‘s taught her about life and living, a journey that‘s made more poignant by her experiences caring for her father (a GP) who himself developed terminal cancer.