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With The End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix
From the blurb on the back “Told through a series of beautifully crafted stories taken from nearly four decades of clinical practice, her book answers the most intimate questions about the process of dying with touching honesty and humanity. She makes a compelling case for the therapeutic power of approaching death not with trepidation but with openness, clarity and understanding.
You will meet Holly, who danced her last day away; Eric, the retired head teacher who, even with Motor Neurone Disease, gets things done; loving, tender-hearted Nelly and Joe, each living a lonely lie to save their beloved from distress; and Sylvie, 19, dying of leukaemia, sewing a cushion for her mum to hug by the fire after she has died.
These are just four of the book’s thirty-odd stories of normal humans, dying normal human deaths. They show how the dying embrace living not because they are unusual or brave, but because that’s what humans do. By turns touching, tragic, at times funny and always wise, they offer us illumination, models for action, and hope. Read this book and you’ll be better prepared for life as well as death.”
This was a moving and powerful read that I read with fat tears on my cheeks for large parts of it. Despite me sobbing my way through, (particularly the sections on young children and young mothers) this book isn’t depressing or dark. It’s oddly uplifting and the focus is about accepting that death is part of life and being prepared will lead to less fear and more time for love and acceptance. I genuinely think this book is incredibly important and whilst I know the subject matter may put people off I think it should be read. It’s written in a unsentimental but caring way and the writer/Doctor respect and care of her patients is evident throughout. This one will stay with me for a long time.