A doctor remembers when he had to tell a young patient with a malignant brain tumour the devastating news, and how the experience set the tone for all of his future encounters with patients facing terminal illnesses.
Holding the Bag of Life and Death
Last winter, after what was probably about 10 years of Alzheimer’s and a myriad of other issues, my grandfather finally died. I think that, like the woman who wrote the essay, many of us in my family had that similarly odd desire for it all to be over. That last year or so, grandpa had become a young child in an old man’s body…
The Last Hospice
“I’m a volunteer at Maitri, the only remaining AIDS hospice in San Francisco,” writes Lisa Katayama. “Once a week, I hang out with its 15 residents, run errands for them, and — sometimes — sit at their bedsides as they go through the process of dying. I do it because I like to face my fears, and death is the one thing that I fear the most.”
Rosie’s Rituals for Remembering
Rosie spends a good deal of her life dressing up and playing a part so Halloween really doesn’t excite her. This year was different. Inspired by a recent death in her community Rosie dressed up. Here, she talks about her rituals of remembering.
Love’s Lost Gains
A man lives through divorce and the tragic loss of loved ones, only to discover he must learn to let the woman he loves go. He ponders the truth behind the sentiment, If you love someone, set them free.
Purging
Mary Black Bonnet takes an aching look at her past and her family, “how we were thrown together and no one made it out in one piece.” And out of darkness, she created her own roadmap into a life worth living.
Life Without Dog
Tim Heintzman pays homage to his departed friend General Custer, a Golden Retriever who loved with no strings attached and taught the human who loved him the gift of humility.
In Other News, Sorry About Your Grandmother
…I live in fear of the sorry-about-your-grandma pause. In fact, I’m so afraid of it am I that until very recently, I attempted to avoid the pause altogether. If a friend came to me with heavy emotional troubles, I would give them all the hugs they needed, and sit there gazing soulfully at them, afraid to speak. If they talked, they talked; otherwise, it became an emotional staring contest. And I played to win.
The Delicate Art of Saying Goodbye to Our Dogs
Our mentor has left us. Vincenzo Rudolfo Pooparetti, dog-father of the Belgian Mafia, has shuffled off this mortal coil. Elvis has left the building. That small brown dog who became such an important part of our lives has passed away.
Stirring Up The Dust — A Memoir for Father’s Day
While cleaning out his garage a son finds his father’s obituary, which takes him back to the tragic circumstances of his dad’s death and stirs up the past.
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