Books, Books and More Books
By Marsha Rivers, Hospice Director of Development and Community Relations
The two I mentioned in the column were:
Sacred
Stories: What Hospice Workers Know That Can Change Your Life by
Jean
R. Linderman. I highly recommend this compilation of accounts from Hospice
nurses, social workers and volunteers, which provided diverse perspectives
about death. The author’s brevity made it manageable to take in a few accounts
per night and then “sleep on them.”
Blessing Our Goodbyes: A Gentle
Guide to Being with the Dying and Preparing for Your Own Death by Kathie Quinlan. This book was a gift from Linda
Quinlan, Kathie’s daughter, who was a favorite professor-turned-colleague of
mine at Roberts Wesleyan College. Kathie gracefully yet passionately makes the
case that death that deserves to be discussed and accepted as a natural part of
life. Beauty and healing await us in these difficult conversations.
Other
books on my shelf (in the order I obtained them):
Befriending
Death: Henri Nouwen and a Spirituality of Dying by
Michelle O’Rourke. I ordered this book as soon as I accepted the position
working for Hospice. Henri is one of my heroes. If I were Catholic (he was, I’m
not), and if he were to be deemed a saint (I already do, the Catholic Church
has not…yet), I’d pick him as my patron. Not only do I identify with his
writing, his faith journey and his personal struggles (particularly his
melancholy, although this might surprise the people who say I smile so much), but
he even proffered lovely and much-needed advice to me (and the masses, pardon
the pun) about that second-only-to-death taboo topic: Money. Just a few weeks
prior to my job change, I had sat in on a webinar hosted by the Henri Nouwen
Society on my hero’s “Spirituality of Fundraising.” Some people might call
those concepts mismatched, spirituality and fundraising. But both are integral
to my life and career.
The
Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of
Life
by Ira Byock, MD. Hospice of Orleans’ Executive Director Mary Anne Fischer
handed me this book on my first day here. It got relegated to the bottom of my to-do
pile as soon as I saw the events calendar. But now that I’ve gone public with
this list, and with Hospice events soon taking a few weeks’ hibernation, I’m
motivated to dig into what looks to be a real eye- and heart-opener!
Hospice,
A Labor of Love by Glavan, Longanacre and Spivey. Getting to
know the Hospice organization and philosophy, I dreamed up this combination of
words myself: Hospice, A Labor of Love. And then, as I often do, I Googled it
to see if someone else had already thought of it. Of course, they had. A
minister, a nurse and a writer. Sounds like the start of a joke, right? No—a
beautiful book, by the looks of it.
Saying
Goodbye to The Iris Lady: A true-life novel by Marilyn Smith
Neilans. I bought this book by a woman with Albion connections at—where
else?—Bindings Bookstore, in Albion. Even though this account of her mother’s
life and death in Williamsburgh, Virginia, fills a healthy 385 pages, perusal
suggests it’s a quick and enjoyable read. And I do love my hometown
connections.
Midwife
for Souls: Spiritual Care for the Dying by Kathy Kalina. Loaned to me
just last week by our head Hospice nurse, who herself helped deliver my babies
at one of the local hospitals. When the birthing wing at that hospital closed,
Mary came here, joining the throngs of people who identify the analogous
relationship between the beginning and ending of a life. Even though this is my
most recent acquisition of the bunch, I suspect I’ll be reading it soonest.
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