Grief Illness

Thirty short-yet-powerful morning and evening reflections offer encouragement, hope, and inspiration to people dealing with a life-threatening illness, and to their family members and caretakers. Here are honest insights and personal stories from a pastor who continues his own journey with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease".

For those suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's, for their friends and family, community and church, this book will help you understand the disease itself, how to love and care for those affected by it, and how to see the hope that's greater than it: we may forget, but God always remembers. With pastoral tenderness and gospel confidence, Dr. Benjamin Mast shares his expertise on the subject and displays the power of the gospel that remains intact even when memory fades.

In this unabridged audio download, Letters from the Land of Cancer, award-winning writer Walter Wangerin Jr. offers his profound insights into the greatest challenge we face: confronting our own mortality. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in January 2006, Wangerin began writing letters to his friends and family members. Now he offers these intimate letters to all who ask questions about living and dying well.

In Coping, media personality, politician, actor, journalist, editor, and author Derryn Hinch shares how he has coped with the many curveballs which have been thrown his way over the course of his colorful life and illustrious career. Hinch gets very personal and provides advice on many topics. From having been convicted of contempt of court on three occasions, and serving two prison sentences and one term of house arrest, to having been married four times, Hinch provides a candid insight into how he has coped and bounced back, time and time again.

Taking the Cape Off shares Fire Chief Pat Kenny's journey to overcome his perceived failure as a leader in his most cherished duty, that of being a protector. His "Cape" failed to protect his 20-year-old son Sean from dying by suicide after a lifelong battle with mental illness. His anguish was complicated by his role as the leader of a fire department.

At the age of 60, Cory Taylor is dying of melanoma-related brain cancer. Her illness is no longer treatable: She now weighs less than her neighbor's retriever. As her body weakens, she describes the experience - the vulnerability and strength, the courage and humility, the anger and acceptance - of knowing she will soon die. Written in the space of a few weeks, in a tremendous creative surge, this powerful and beautiful memoir is a clear-eyed account of what dying teaches.

“Where is the handbook for widows?” Mary Kenyon lamented as she planned a funeral for the beloved husband whose triumph over cancer she chronicled in Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage. During the ensuing weeks, as she attempted to make sense of his untimely death, she filled two journals, blogged, and read the inspirational writings of others who had gone down the road of grief before her.

Eighteen-year-old Del is in a healthier place than she was a year and a half ago: She’s sober, getting treatment for her depression and anxiety, and volunteering at a suicide-prevention hotline. Her own suicide attempt is in the past, and living in San Francisco with her beloved aunt has helped her see a future for herself. But when Aunt Fran is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Del’s equilibrium is shattered. She’s dedicated herself to saving every life she can, but she can’t save Fran.

Wie können wir Hoffnung schöpfen und Kraft finden, wenn wir mit Krankheit, Kummer, Schmerz oder Tod konfrontiert sind? Diese Frage beschäftigt auch Julia Baird, als sie schwer an Krebs erkrankt. Im Phänomen der Phosphoreszenz findet sie schließlich die geeignete Metapher für das, was uns in dunklen Stunden Licht bringt: So, wie es die Phosphoreszenz Glühwürmchen, Quallen und sogar ganzen Ozeanen ermöglicht, aus sich selbst heraus zu leuchten, können auch wir Menschen unsere eigene Phosphoreszenz erschaffen.

In 2013, the author was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. This nonfiction account chronicles that journey and how the experience changed her life for the better. Learning to see the positive in a terminal diagnosis gave her the strength to become a better person and see the world around her in a more positive way.

A jornalista Ana Michelle Soares já convivia com o câncer fazia mais de uma década quando, em 2022, a doença se agravou. A descoberta de lesões no cérebro levou a uma radioterapia agressiva. Com efeitos colaterais devastadores, AnaMi entendeu que talvez a finitude estivesse bem perto. O caminho pelo desfiladeiro da vida ficava cada vez mais estreito.

Memoirs of a caregiver turned cancer patient, turned professional athlete: A young widow suddenly must raise three children alone - all while living with a rare blood cancer and working full time. This situation might make any woman despair, but Sally Kalksma is not just any woman. With her passion for life and her infectious energy, she found the motivation to power through adversity with tenacity and grit while never giving up hope, even when life looked its bleakest.

Nicky, a witty, intelligent, and clever 13-year-old, was diagnosed with a rare childhood bone cancer. However, this book is about more than cancer and its treatment and the fight to survive. It's about more than a mother and her son who accepted his mortality at such a young age and the strength and love between two loving souls.

Seventeen-year-old Katie Price has a rare disease that makes exposure to even the smallest amount of sunlight deadly. Confined to her house during the day, her company is limited to her widowed father and her best friend. It isn't until after nightfall that Katie's world opens up, when she takes her guitar to the local train station and plays for the people coming and going. Charlie Reed is a former all-star athlete at a crossroads in his life - and the boy Katie has secretly admired from afar for years. When he happens upon her playing guitar one night, fate intervenes and the two embark on a star-crossed romance.

After a near fatal stroke in 1995, Robert McCrum has gained an intimate understanding of his own mortality. Twenty-two years on, his friends have joined him in experiencing Prospero's 'every third thought' of death as a dominating theme of life. McCrum asks: can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients and writers for advice and wisdom.

2015 erfährt Cory Taylor, dass sie nicht mehr lange zu leben hat. In nur wenigen Wochen hat sie ihre Memoiren verfasst, die kurz vor ihrem Tod im Juli 2016 erschienen. Auf bemerkenswerte Weise reflektiert sie über den Sinn der Zeit, die ihr noch bleibt. Sie lässt uns teilhaben an ihrer Erfahrung, was das Sterben sie gelehrt hat. Der universellen Frage über ein Leben nach dem Tod begegnet sie als nicht-religiöser Mensch in einer für sie selbst überraschenden spirituellen Form. Ergreifend und zutiefst weise sind ihre Gedanken über das Sterben, die zugleich eine Hymne an das Leben sind.

In 1998, Spielman's wife, Stefanie, was diagnosed with breast cancer, launching an eleven-year journey that brought joy and suffering to the Spielmans and hope and inspiration to thousands of others. In That's Why I'm Here, Spielman traces his storied career, recalls his courtship with Stephanie, cherishes the growth of their four children, and invokes the deep, spiritual faith that gave their family wisdom and comfort in times of struggle.

After receiving the news that in vitro would be her only hope for biological children, award-winning poet Emily Adams had to learn to live in a new world of needles, embarrassing tests, long waiting periods, and expensive doctor appointments.

Jesse Cooper was an honor-roll student who loved to windsurf and write poetry. He also had severe cerebral palsy and was quadriplegic, unable to speak, and wracked by seizures. He died suddenly at age 17. In fiercely honest, surprisingly funny, and sometimes heartbreaking prose, Jesse's mother, Marianne Leone, chronicles her transformation by the remarkable life and untimely death of her child.

In 1985, when Cindy Weinstein was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, her beloved father, Jerry, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He was 58 years old. Twelve years later, at age 70, he died having lost all of his memories, along with his ability to read, write, and speak.