I am intrigued and awed by the people who can choose death when they love life so much. I was with my mother in law when she asked the pastor at her Palliative Care appointment, if going off dialysis was considered suicide. She was ready to go and was done watching/feeling her brain deteriorate after two years of dialysis. It was the greatest kindness and act of motherly love to her remaining, loving son to not leave it to him to have to decide once she was no longer able to. She died on her own terms and in peace with her adult grandchildren able to experience lovingly saying goodbye - and she to them. This love story was beautiful, heart-rending and meaningful to me. Amy Bloom lent her graceful narrative style to the exquisitely personal and meaningful happenings of her own experience- a rare experience that few have endured and even fewer have the means to share. Oh boy she endured the ultimate conundrum of being with her beloved husband and best friend as he made the decisions and conscious efforts to die while still himself.

What a gift this book is to the author’s husband and to readers. It’s obviously hard to fathom how difficult it must be to have to support someone you love who finds ending their life medically necessary but Amy captures it with grace, clarity and sometimes welcome doses of humor.

A very courageous book to have written at a most difficult time

A moving tribute to a great love. Thought provoking….could I face that situation with the same grace and dignity?

Almost all the way through this.