A Long Letting Go

These Christian meditations on losing someone you love our written by a professor of medical humanities and former Professor of English who is also a long time hospice volunteer. The sections are short and devotional with four main headings: accompanying, witnessing, mourning and words for keeping watch. The stories are accompanied by prayers and she draws on the experiences of her own family, particularly the deaths of her mother and father. There are fears to be faced, despair, hope, confession and forgiveness as well as setting the house in order. Sometimes one just has to wait and accept the growing remoteness of the dying relative whose focus is moving elsewhere. Then there is release and gratitude for a good life lived. I like the idea that we have our bodies on loan, to be given back rather given up when we move on. A moving and compassionate book.