[A
Saturday Feature of the First Road Blog]
When
you reach three-score-and-ten and your mother died at seventy-three and you
both grew up in a smoke-laden environment, you begin to think a lot about the
last frontier before entering the Capitol City of Jesus’ Kingdom. That was why
I added Deborah Howard’s book, Sunsets, to
my reading list. Its subtitle says it all: Reflections
for Life’s Final Journey, and I recommend it highly but with a caution. The
caution would be that you read it before you or someone very close to you hears the
word “terminal,” and that a friend read it as a means of sifting through what
would be best for you to hear on your journey down the dark roads.
As
a registered nurse, hospital chaplain, hospice worker, and good theologian,
Deborah Howard has put together a phase by phase analysis of what can and may
happen during the journey from diagnosis, through treatment, to realization of terminality,
the actual passing, and picking up the pieces. She makes the progress through a fictional
couple who represent a montage of real experiences. She also gives actual case
studies to reinforce each section, and both offers and describes steps patients
and their families can take to make the process as trauma and pain free as
possible. If you have not yet made a Living
Will, you will want to and you will know what you want it to say after
digesting the story and the studies.
If
the book has a weakness it is in the theological discussions included with each
phase. By that I do not mean the Mrs. Howard’s theology is bad. Actually, she
is quote spot-on. However, my personal impression was it might be a bit more
loquacious than someone could absorb at ground zero of a dying experience.
Thanks for this. I do "loquacious" with ease ;-)
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