Living the Patient's Story

Excerpt

What can we learn from the dying beyond a sudden sense of our own mortality? From the young woman with cancer who, in the midst of her pain and suffering, becomes abruptly still, looks about her hospital room with dawning recognition, fixing her visitors and doctor with a look of wisdom drawn from some mysterious source, and proclaims with certain finality that she loves and will miss them all—is there anything to be gained beyond the poignancy of the moment? Is it that we have become a part of her story?

Or perhaps the patient will be a stern, elderly