A Good Death: A Couple's Journey

by Laura Schmidt

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0963103393
• ISBN13: 9780963103390
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Helm Pub
• Length: 137 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Eye-Opening and Moving Account of 'A Good Death'

This book was a revelation to me. Unless you've been confronted with a terminal illness in your own family, it is hard to imagine how truly difficult it is to achieve a good death in this country. The paperwork, the numerous doctors and procedures, the simple will to get up everyday and fight cancer and retain your dignity, all of these tasks seem monumental and insurmountable. But Laura Schmidt and Joe Pizzarello helped me to figure out how to navigate the health care system, what paperwork is crucial to honor my wishes should I not be able to articulate them myself, and how to retain my sense of self as someone who isn't just a 'cancer patient'. What I didn't expect from this book, and what ultimately inspired me the most, is the all too rare love and support between Laura and Joe, and the incredible network of friends and family who were there at every turn. I also took hope from the small acts of kindness from supermarket employees and hairdressers in this book-you often feel so very alone when you become a 'cancer patient' and these small monents in the book were very reassuring to me. It really is a blessing to know that, in the darkest of hours, the love that sustains us is the love that will show us how to endure cancer and achieve a good death. While it saddens me to think about Laura's passing, I am so grateful that she and Joe were able to share with me their very hard-earned knowledge. Now I am confident that I, too, will be able to dictate my own treatment regime and my own wishes for the end of my life.