Description: A compassionate guide to navigating the emotional and practical realities of supporting a loved one at life's end.
Brief description: Maureen Groden, RN, is a hospice nurse and educator.
Review Quotes: "A support group in a book. As hospice nurse Maureen Groden makes her rounds-each vignette displaying a different facet of patients and families coping with late-stage illness-we witness and learn. A gift to anyone contemplating how they might cope, which is more or less all of us!"-Maureen Callahan Smith, author of Grace Street: A Sister's Memoir of Grief and Gratitude "All too many American families think that hospice is 'giving up.' These stories accurately show the compassion and breadth of concerns that hospice staff have, including caring about the person, not just as a patient, and for the family as the unit of care."-William Haley, University of South Florida "Incredibly poignant and compelling, these stories offer a refreshingly realistic portrayal of life's complexities-depicting families with trauma histories, fractured relationships, and the real challenges of assisted living-while thoughtfully representing the rich diversity of race, family composition, and sexuality."-Rachel Kentor, Baylor College of Medicine "A realistic, rich, and comforting resource for people coming together in the face of end-of-life experiences. Groden's personal devotion to helping people understand and engage in the complex circumstances of serious illness is evident. She shares accurate information side by side with emotional and thoughtful reflections. An essential collection of caring stories!"-Olga Ehrlich, RN, Oakland University School of Nursing "Maureen Groden has written a book using the best teaching strategy of all, which is the telling of stories. These stories of people facing death and those who love and care for them is beautifully written. It provides practical advice as well as capturing the sacred time of life ending. It will be a guide to those who will face death and those who will accompany them on this journey."-Betty Ferrell, PhD, City of Hope Medical Center