Dear Life - BookWyrm

336 pages

English language

Published Jan. 30, 2020 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

ISBN:: 978-1-4087-1252-8
Goodreads:: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50935544-dear-life

(1 review)

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable. Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time …

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable. Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world. Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter - to a father, to a profession, to life itself.

4 editions

Nerywood reviewed Dear Life by Rachel Clarke

Review of 'Dear Life' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is a book that details the life in a hospice, the place where many die when there isn't any other treatment that can be given. It isn't a place many of us experience, or we experience it when we don't want to.

Dr.Clarke (the author, who is also referred to as Rachel when she is talking about stories with her family) tells the readers many stories about people who are in the hospice and the awesome things that the hospice is able to do for them before they pass away. It could be as simple as allowing someone to die at home with no pain, to planning and running a wedding in less than 2 days.

There are multiple stories in this book that will make you cry, especially if you have been a hospital patient, have been in the hospital for numerous reasons, or have had someone you …

This is a book that details the life in a hospice, the place where many die when there isn't any other treatment that can be given. It isn't a place many of us experience, or we experience it when we don't want to.

Dr.Clarke (the author, who is also referred to as Rachel when she is talking about stories with her family) tells the readers many stories about people who are in the hospice and the awesome things that the hospice is able to do for them before they pass away. It could be as simple as allowing someone to die at home with no pain, to planning and running a wedding in less than 2 days.

There are multiple stories in this book that will make you cry, especially if you have been a hospital patient, have been in the hospital for numerous reasons, or have had someone you love be in the hospital and die there.

Since Dr.Clarke is based in the UK, there are multiple references to things that the UK has a different way of saying (compared to other countries in the world) which means it may be a bit harder for an international reader to read and fully understand everything without doing some research on certain words.

This isn't a book I could, or want to read in one day. It requires setting down multiple times and picking it back up again when you can. The chapter markers, while good to have, sometimes happen right in the middle of a story and all the reader will want to do is continue to read that story.

I'm sure this is a book that Dr.Clarke's patients and family can read, and be very proud of. If you every wonder what the life of a doctor is when someone is dying then pick up this book and read it.

Subjects

Medicine