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This is admittedly the kind of story I can tend to avoid if left to my own devices…. But I‘m glad it was a pick for my work book club. It is, of course, emotional and moving, but also full of love, light, and life. Besides Lenni‘s friendship with Margot, I adored her relationship with Father Arthur. May our loved ones‘ stories live on.🎧
“If you don‘t learn anything else from death, learn to tell the truth.” -Ben Wolf.
pickFourth in my #24in2024, and for my irl book club, which I had to miss for a work trip. It‘s a tear-jerker and I usually don‘t like having my emotions manipulated. But the stories were so engaging and I was rooting for them both to make it to their 100th, so I didn‘t feel manipulated. I‘m just sorry I missed out on the discussion.
pick@JenniferEgnor wrote a review of this book and posted several entries and I can‘t top them. So check those out. I‘m not a novice to this subject matter. I‘ve done the type of caregiving she recommends when someone is dying. What this book does so well is remind us that dying will happen and you really do need to prepare, for yourself and your family. She outlines pitfalls and possibilities. I‘m going to purchase the paper version to refer back to.
pickI can‘t recommend this book enough! It‘s a gentle guide to all the things you need to think about, prepare for, and take action on for how to plan a good death. It can seem overwhelming but it‘s worth doing. This is especially personal to the author due to the experience she had with her father. We all deserve a good death. It‘s up to all of us to keep working towards a world that is more loving and just for everyone. We can, and we must.
Late Fragment
And did you get what
You wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
Beloved on the earth.
—Raymond Carver, written not long before his death in 1988
Doesn‘t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver
Assisted Death isn‘t new. Throughout history, some medical professionals have quietly hastened death when they believed that their moral obligation to relieve suffering overrode a blanket duty to prolong life. Among them is one of the most admired people in Western medical history: the microbiologist Louis Pasteur, the father of the germ theory of disease, the inventor of pasteurization, and the developer of inoculations for rabies. In the mid⬇️
Leave a good emotional legacy. Enjoy the time you have left. Don‘t postpone joy. Go on an adventure. Leave loved ones in good shape.
