Told through the eyes and heart of an interfaith hospice chaplain, The Three Regrets shares stories of remarkable men and women who have struggled with regrets. Some harbored them until the very end. Others embraced them as opportunities to resolve their regrets and live life fully... celebrating strength, the power of choice, and peace.

Christopher Kerr is a hospice doctor. All of his patients die. Yet he has tended thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love, meaning and grace. They reveal that there is hope beyond cure as they transition to focus on personal meaning. In this extraordinary and beautiful book, Dr. Kerr shares his patients' stories and his own research pointing to death as not purely the end of life, but as a final passage of humanity and transcendence. Drawing on interviews with over 1,200 patients and more than a decade of quantified data , Dr. Kerr reveals why pre-death dreams and visions are remarkable events that bring comfort and exemplify human resilience. These are not regular dreams. Described as "more real than real," they frequently include loved ones long gone and mark the transition from distress to acceptance. These end-of-life experiences help patients restore meaning, make sense of the dying process and assist in reclaiming it as an experience in which they have a say. They also benefit the bereaved who get relief from seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure. Beautifully written with astonishing stories, this book, at its heart, celebrates the power to reclaim how we die, while soothing the bereaved who witness their loved ones go with unqualified grace.

For many years, J. Lei and her husband, Trent, lived an idyllic life on a Texas ranch, one that had been in their family for five generations. But then Trent was diagnosed with stage four cirrhosis and died unexpectedly. In The Heart Remembers, Lei offers a personal account of how she processed and dealt with the death of her beloved spouse. This memoir follows her journey from the beginning-through the uncertain steps of the initial diagnosis to the inevitable end of a fatal disease. She shares the grief she experienced as a surviving spouse and provides insight into the emotions, actions, and thoughts one might experience in a similar circumstance. The Heart Remembers chronicles the courage and determination that was necessary to pull through one of life's saddest and most shocking events. It presents an honest, intimate, and down-to-earth account of one woman's struggle to turn tragedy into enlightenment and shows that hope exists in all things-even death.

The follow-up to celebrated grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor’s The Grieving Brain focuses on the impact of grief—and life’s other major stressors—on the human body.

Coping with death and grief is one of the most painful human experiences. While we can speak to the psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies. Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor specializes in the study of grief, and in The Grieving Body she shares vital scientific research, revealing imperative new insights on its profound physiological impact. As she did in The Grieving Brain, O’Connor combines illuminating studies and personal stories to explore the toll loss takes on our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems and the larger implications for our long-term well-being.

The Grieving Body addresses questions about how bereavement affects us, such as:

• Can we die of a broken heart?
• What happens in our bodies when we’re grieving?
• How do our coping behaviors affect our physical health?
• What is the cognitive impact of grief?
• Why are we more prone to illness during times of enormous stress?

Research-backed, warm, and empathetic, The Grieving Body is an essential, hopeful read for those experiencing loss as well as their supportive friends and family.

The Grieving Body is illustrated with black-and-white charts and graphs.

When her father becomes gravely ill on holiday in Budapest, Alexandra Fuller rushes to join her mother at his bedside, where they see out his last days together and then carry his ashes back to their farm in Zambia. A master of time and memory, Fuller moves seamlessly between the days and months following her father's death. She contends with his overwhelming absence, and her memories of a childhood spent running after him in southern and central Africa. She then faces seemingly irreparable family fallout, new love found and lost, and, eventually, further unimaginable bereavement. Bursting with pandemonium and tragedy, here is a story of joy, resilience and vitality, from a writer at the very height of her powers.

Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work, The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie -- man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.

Marilyn Johnson was enthralled by the remarkable lives that were marching out of this world--so she sought out the best obits in the English language and the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. She surveyed the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, and made a pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all. Now she leads us on a compelling journey into the cult and culture behind the obituary page and the unusual lives we don't quite appreciate until they're gone.

A joyful book of hope…written with touching candor and a deep wisdom."
-Harry Lipscomb, Texas A&M University College of Medicine

Recovering from loss takes more than time.

It takes choices.

Even during the darkest times there are decisions you can make and paths you can choose that lead to wholeness and hope. In this compassionate, caring guide Elizabeth Harper Neeld tells of her own poignant loss, the death of her young husband, along with the real-life experiences of over sixty other women and men. Together with the latest statistical findings on grief and recovery, their stories will help you to answer such questions as "How can I live through this pain?"... "Why can't I get over my loss?"..."Will I ever be happy again?" as it helps you discover:

• What steps rebuild beliefs, relationships, and happiness

• How to honor the past without being dominated by it

• What assistance to request from family and friends

• How to tell the difference between sadness and depression

• When to seek company and when it's best to be alone

• Why reminiscing about the past can help create a new future

• Why some people take longer than others to recover their love of life.

This book was used by volunteers working with victims' families after 9/11.

Sooner or later we all have to go through the grieving process. We do not fully understand grief until we have walked through it ourselves. But grief has a common pattern, and it helps if we know what to expect. This helpful book explains the stages of grief and suggests practical steps for learning to live again. It points the way to healing and hope, and draws from the special comfort and resources the Christian faith can offer.

This book reviews the spectrum of death, from when the living person turns to corpse until the person lives in the memory of mourners, and its impact on the ecology of the socio-cultural community and physical environment. This book demonstrates that American society today is in a pivotal period for re-imaging end-of-life care, funerary services, human disposition methods, memorializing, and mourning. The editors and contributors outline the past, present, and future of death care rituals, pointing to promising new practices and innovative projects that show how we can better integrate the dying and dead with the living and create positive change that supports sustainable stewardship of our environment. Individual chapters describe prevailing practices and issues in different settings where people die and in postmortem rituals; disposition and current ecologically and, in urban areas, spatially unsustainable methods; law of human remains; customs and trends among key stakeholders, such as cemeteries and funeral directors; and relevant technological advances. The book culminates in a presentation of emerging sustainable disposition technologies and innovative designs for proposed public memorial projects that respond to shifting values, beliefs, and priorities among an increasingly diverse population. Demonstrates the centrality of death care-from the deathbed to rituals of commemoration and mourning-in our individual and communal life and cultures Reveals promising trends in human disposition, burial places, funerary officiant profession, technologies of memorialization, and grief therapy Addresses how COVID-19 has accelerated and highlighted the need to address our changing death-care landscape on every level Points to paradigm shifts in the U.S. population's value system and beliefs that will impact how we manage death care individually and communally Presents innovative design proposals showing how spaces of remembrance and ritual can be integrated with urban life

A Step-by-Step Guide for Honoring the Dead and Empowering the Living

When someone dies, there are so many questions from what to do in the moment of grief, to dealing with the practical details of the funeral, to spiritual concerns about the meaning of life and death. This indispensable guide to Jewish mourning and comfort provides traditional and modern insights into every aspect of loss. In a new, easy-to-use format, this classic resource is full of wise advice to help you cope with death and comfort others when they are bereaved.

Dr. Ron Wolfson takes you step by step through the mourning process, including the specifics of funeral preparations, preparing the home and family to sit "shiva," and visiting the grave. Special sections deal with helping young children grieve, mourning the death of an infant or child, and more.

Wolfson captures the poignant stories of people in all stages of grieving children, spouses, parents, rabbis, friends, non-Jews and provides new strategies for reinvigorating and transforming the Jewish ways we mourn, grieve, remember, and carry on with our lives after the death of a loved one.

A gentle guide for end of life care aimed at families and caregivers. Caring for the Dying describes a whole new way to approach death and dying. It explores how the dying and their families can bring deep meaning and great comfort to the care given at the end of a life. Created by Henry Fersko-Weiss, the end-of-life doula model is adapted from the work of birth doulas and helps the dying to find meaning in their life, express that meaning in powerful and beautiful legacies, and plan for the final days. The approach calls for around-the-clock vigil care, so the dying person and their family have the emotional and spiritual support they need along with guidance on signs and symptoms of dying. It also covers the work of reprocessing a death with the family afterward and the early work of grieving. Emphasis is placed on the space around the dying person and encourages the use of touch, guided imagery, and ritual during the dying process. Throughout the book Fersko-Weiss tells amazing and encouraging stories of the people he has cared for, as well as stories that come from doulas he has trained and worked with over the years. The guidance provided can help a dying person, their family, and caregivers to transform the dying experience from one of fear and despair into one that is uplifting and even life affirming. You will see death in a new light and gain a different perspective on how to help the dying. It may even change the way you live your life right now.

Die tweede, hersiene uitgawe van Genesing vir Trauma is ’n diepgaande, omvattende handleiding wat steun op dekade lange eerstehandse ervaring in berading. Die tweede uitgawe is nie net volledig opgedateer en bygewerk nie, maar bevat ook nuwe hoofstukke, soos die hoofstuk oor die impak van Covid-19.

Beide beraders en slagoffers sal kan baat vind by die verstaanbare, relevante inhoud propvol algemene wysheid en geestelike begeleiding. Elke hoofstuk bevat waardevolle riglyne oor hoe om mense wat 'n spesifieke vorm van trauma beleef het by te staan, en wel binne die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks.

Hierdie opgedateerde uitgawe spreek tot alle groepe binne die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing. Hoewel die boek vanuit 'n Christelike perspektief geskryf is, is die beradingstegnieke wetenskaplik-gefundeerd en kan dit deur 'n wyer mark gebruik word. Individuele genesing het ’n genesende uitkringeffek op die gemeenskap wat vir almal van belang is. Yvonne Retief se sentrale boodskap is dat daar genesing en hoop vir slagoffers van trauma is.