Book picks similar to
Talking About Death Won't Kill You by Virginia B. Morris
nonfiction
non-fiction
end-of-life
health-science
Pregnancy After a Loss: A Guide to Pregnancy After a Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Infant Death
Carol Cirulli Lanham - 1999
This guide, filled with up-to-date medical information and written by a woman who herself experienced a successful pregnancy after the loss of her first baby, can help women cope with their anxiety. It offers guidance for women asking such questions as:Why did it happen--and how can I make sure it doesn't happen again?Will my next pregnancy be considered high-risk?How long should I wait before getting pregnant again?What can I expect at prenatal exams?Will I ever be able to love another baby as much as I love the one I lost?Pregnancy after a loss can be a time of great emotional upheaval--but also, a time of healing and hope. With this sensible, sensitive guide, women can put their minds at ease--and learn to look forward to the future as they make peace with the past.
Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician
Michelle Williams - 2010
. . and an unusual occupation. When she impulsively applies to be a mortuary technician and is offered the position, she has no idea that her decision to accept will be one of the most momentous of her life. “What I didn’t realize then,” she writes, “was that I was about to start one of the most amazing jobs you can do.”To Williams, life in the mortuary is neither grim nor frightening. She introduces readers to a host of unique characters: pathologists (many eccentric, some utterly crazy), undertakers, and the man from the coroner’s office who sings to her every morning. No two days are alike, and while Williams’s sensitivity to the dead never wavers, her tales from the crypt range from mischievous to downright shocking. Readers won’t forget the fitness fanatic run over while doing nighttime push-ups on the road, the man so large he had to be carted in via refrigerated truck, or the guide dog who led his owner onto railway tracks—and left him there. The indomitable Williams never bats an eye, even as she is confronted—daily—with situations that would leave the rest of us speechless.
The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing
Kevin Young - 2010
There are two times most people turn to it: for love and loss. The Art of Losing will be the first anthology of its kind, delivering poetry with a purpose. Editor Kevin Young has introduced and selected 150 devastatingly beautiful poems that embrace the pain and heartbreak of mourning. Divided into five sections (Reckoning, Remembrance, Rituals, Recovery, and Redemption), with poems by some of our most beloved poets as well as the best of the current generation of poets, The Art of Losing is the ideal a gift for a loved one in a time of need and for use by ministers, rabbis, and palliative care workers who tend to those who are experiencing loss. Among the poets included: Elizabeth Alexander, W.H. Auden, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Kenneth Koch, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marianne Moore, Sharon Olds Mary Oliver, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott, and James Wright.
A Time to Grieve: Meditations for Healing After the Death of a Loved One
Carol Staudacher - 1994
A collection of truly comforting, down-to-earth thoughts and meditations -- including the authentic voices of survivors -- for anyone grieving the loss of a loved one.
Animals and the Afterlife: True Stories of Our Best Friends' Journey Beyond Death
Kim Sheridan - 2003
Each time she faced the death of a beloved pet, along with the pain came the same questions, to which she could find no answers. Then, mysterious things began to happen that she couldn’t explain, which led her on an incredible journey to uncover the truth. Along with her own extraordinary experiences, she compiled heartwarming and meaningful true stories of everyday people around the world, and discovered compelling evidence that forever erased her own doubts about an afterlife for animals. This book provides enormous comfort and reassurance to anyone who has ever cherished a pet, and food for thought for anyone who has ever questioned the place of these beloved creatures in the larger scheme of things, both here on Earth and beyond.
Coping with Sorrow on the Loss of Your Pet
Moira Anderson Allen - 1987
Treats this serious subject with sympathetic feelings. An excellent guide allowing us to understand that we are not alone with our grief. Anyone who has a pet should read it. -Dog Week Written with compassion and understanding; truly required reading for any pet owner. -Dog World Coping with Sorrow addresses every aspect of pet loss and grief. Written in a clear, friendly style. It takes a pet owner by the hand and walks him through the stages of bereavement, offering explanations and coping strategies at every step. -Canine Concepts A small gem of a book. Anderson's book fills the need for a comprehensive, yet easily read, publication on pet loss and owner bereavement. The message is one of love, common sense, and practical information. -The Delta Society This book has been needed for a long time-like forever! The wealth of information given by pet owners makes the book come alive. It's a lovely thing, beautifully and generously written from the bottom of a superb writer's heart. -Dog Writers Association of America It gets right to the heart of the issue of pet loss, right to where people are hurting. [Its] warm, down-to-earth language reaches out to a pet owner on the level of friend to friend. -Bloodlines
Conquering Infertility: Dr. Alice Domar's Mind/Body Guide to Enhancing Fertility and Coping with Inferti lity
Alice D. Domar - 2002
It causes tremendous stress, can trigger debilitating sadness and depression and can tear a marriage to shreds. In Conquering Infertility, Harvard psychologist Alice Domar—whom Vogue calls the “Fertility Goddess”—provides infertile couples with what they need most: stress relief, support, and hope. Using the innovative mind/body techniques she has perfected at her clinic, Domar helps infertile women not only regain control over their lives but also boost their chances of becoming pregnant. With Conquering Infertility, women learn how to cope with infertility in a much more positive way and to carve a path toward a rich, full, happy life.
Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
Joan Halifax - 1997
Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, who are facing their own death, or who are wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process. Halifax offers lessons from dying people and caregivers, as well as guided meditations to help readers contemplate death without fear, develop a commitment to helping others, and transform suffering and resistance into courage. She says, "Why wait until we are actually dying to explore what it may mean to die with awareness?" A world-renowned pioneer in care of the dying, Joan Halifax founded the Project on Being with Dying, which helps dying people to face death with courage and trains professional and family caregivers in compassionate and ethical end-of-life care.
Gratitude
Oliver Sacks - 2015
I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” —Oliver SacksNo writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death. “It is the fate of every human being,” Sacks writes, “to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.
The Still Point of the Turning World
Emily Rapp - 2013
But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder. Ronan was not expected to live beyond the age of three; he would be permanently stalled at a developmental level of six months. Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting. They would have to learn to live with their child in the moment; to find happiness in the midst of sorrow; to parent without a future.The Still Point of the Turning World is the story of a mother’s journey through grief and beyond it. Rapp’s response to her son’s diagnosis was a belief that she needed to “make my world big”—to make sense of her family’s situation through art, literature, philosophy, theology and myth. Drawing on a broad range of thinkers and writers, from C.S. Lewis to Sylvia Plath, Hegel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rapp learns what wisdom there is to be gained from parenting a terminally ill child. In luminous, exquisitely moving prose she re-examines our most fundamental assumptions about what it means to be a good parent, to be a success, and to live a meaningful life.
Losing My Best Friend: Thoughtful support for those affected by dog bereavement or pet loss
Jeannie Wycherley - 2017
Remember me though it hurts to do so, because the pain you have is equal to the love we shared, and as long as you feel something, I am here with you. There is no goodbye if you carry me in your heart. Remember all the joy we shared, because there was so much of it for both of us.” Herbie Longfellow Alderdice Are you a dog owner who is in the process of losing your best friend to illness? Or have you lost your beloved friend and you are struggling to get over them? Pet bereavement is tough. Not everyone sympathises with you. Jeannie Wycherley chose to write this book after the loss of her beloved boy, Herbie, because she was hurt by the repetition of the phrase, “he was just a dog.” She realised that her grief transcended that tired notion - one tritely rolled out by people who think they’re being helpful and supportive, failing to realise the guilt and shame many pet owners already experience when they are locked deep in mourning. Losing my Best Friend seeks to dispel the myth that any of our best friends are ever ‘just’ dogs, and it acknowledges that the recovery from dog bereavement is a journey we make mostly on our own, which many find isolating. Losing my best friend demonstrated that there is no rule book, and no hard and fast techniques that will make you ‘better’. Recovery should be taken at your own pace. There is no schedule, and no-one has the right to say, “Oh, I thought you’d be over it by now.” Losing my Best Friend: thoughtful support for those affected by dog bereavement or pet loss also offers practical advice about what to do when your dog passes away, including tips on helping your children or other pets cope with the loss, designing your own ceremony to celebrate your dog’s life, and creating memorials. One of the biggest strengths of this book is that it validates what you are feeling. Other people share similar experiences and emotions, and recognise your struggle. You’re normal! In these pages Jeannie Wycherley has created a loving tribute to Herbie, and Losing my Best Friend delivers support with a light and loving touch.
Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss
Rachel Clarke - 2020
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.
The Removalist: On the Front Line of Death Care (Silent Siren #2)
Matthew Franklin Sias - 2019
Step into the hidden world of death care and explore the challenge of removing the deceased from the often-difficult, regularly awkward, and sometimes downright bizarre circumstances in which they die, the art and science of embalming, and the intrigue of forensic pathology. Sias is a veteran death investigator, former funeral director/embalmer intern, and paramedic with twenty-eight years of emergency response experience.
Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir
Jayson Greene - 2019
She is immediately rushed to the hospital. Once More We Saw Stars begins with this event, leading the reader into the unimaginable.But although it begins with the anguish Jayson and his wife Stacy confront in the wake of their daughter’s trauma and the hours leading up to her death, it quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the very midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it—that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems un-survivable.With raw honesty, deep emotion, and exquisite tenderness, he captures both the fragility of life and absoluteness of death, and most important of all, the unconquerable power of love. This is an unforgettable memoir of courage and transformation—and a book that will change the way you look at the world.
Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death
Katherine Ramsland - 2001
We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them?Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to mortuary assistants, gravediggers, funeral home owners, and more, and find out about:Stitching and cosmetic secrets used on mutilated bodiesEmbalmers who do more than just embalmThe rising popularity of cremation artGhosts that infest graveyards everywhereIf you've ever scoffed at the high price of burying the dead, or ever wondered how your loved ones are handled when they die, or simply stared at tombstones with morbid fascination, then take a trip with Katherine Ramsland and learn about the booming industry -- and strange tales -- that surround cemeteries everywhere.