Peaceful Passages

This profoundly humane book tells the story of a dedicated hospice nurse and the good deaths she has witnessed over a 20-year period. The seven chapters address understanding death, ways of saying goodbye, heart warming relationships, mysterious and spiritual experiences, tough customers, comic relief and cultural differences. The value lies in the individual stories with the touching details and overall lessons for compassionate and professional practice. There are of course many perspectives on the dying process from patients and families, but an overall impression of departure and transition on a further journey. Perhaps the most interesting experiences relate to two dreams. In one, Janet experiences the death of a patient, while in the other both mother and son had the same dream premonition of his early death - she when he was two and he went he was 12. Among the lighter moments are where she asks one patient if she has any pain, to which the patient replies, only when it hurts. Another asked for a ticking clock to be buried with her, so that she had something to listen to until she got used to being dead. Janet gives an important message in her closing reflections that working with the dying gives an immediate experience of the fragility and impermanence of the thread of life, reminding us all of the precious opportunity that it represents.