Being Mortal – Looking Back and Looking Forward
Pat Sutton
HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT BACKGROUND........... Healthcare Consumer Looking for Fixes/Improvements
Ten years ago today, I lost my mom and I look back at that time and remember and appreciate the impact of the grace of the hospice that allowed me to care for her so lovingly and gently. The same hospice that helped me take care of my dad just six years earlier.
Looking back, too, I remember hearing Dr. Atul Gawande talk about his book Being Mortal and the problems that come from the unwillingness to have good planning and decision-making for aging and death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8P5adkmdM
Looking forward I want to share with you an important message from the author of YOURS TRULY: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story “You have a great story. Do tell it.” That is what James R. (Bob) Hagerty wrote in my copy and I am starting on that journey. Bob says that even if you do it only for family and friends take the time to do it.
Using inspiring examples in his book, he explains how to preserve your own personal history, from the brief obituary to a mini-memoir for the people you love and cherish, family or friends.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/63208597
Interview with Gary Edward Barg, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Today’s Caregiver Magazine and caregiver.com : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sGIdVEdlTo
Interview with Malaprop’s Bookstore:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW-D0G9PKEM??
Take special care and be well, Pat
Technology Executive | Cloud Transformation Expert and Healthcare Innovation Enabler
1 年What a wonderful recommendation!!! Auto Gawande’s “Bring Mortal” is one of the most beautifully written and compelling books I’ve ever read on the subject of the enevitable our own ultimate mortality. I also recommend “The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift” by Steve Leder.
Pat, my mother drafted her own obituary, perhaps with some urging from me, but mostly on her own. It made it easy to write the final copy, with some input from my siblings. I wish she had documented more about her early life. She was telling new stories about her high school years just before she died. I have begun writing my own obit. My siblings wouldn't know where to begin and good friends are scattered around the world. It looks as though I should get a copy of Yours Truly as a guide! (I already have Being Mortal, of course.)
Writer of obituaries and other stories. Frequent contributor to Wall Street Journal and other publications.
1 年Thank you, Pat!