“Get them out of here so I can die,” he said looking straight at me.”
“Grandma and I are just sitting on her bed talking to the beautiful golden lady,” the little girl told me mater-of-factually.
“Suddenly the eyes that had looked at us blankly for years were filled with intelligence and she was there”
Excerpts from “Closing Chapters”
About joan
Joan grew up in Southwestern Montana the oldest of four children. In 1980, at the beginning of the hospice movement in the U.S., she became a hospice nurse. Over the course of 50 years, Joan helped numerous patients and their families through the difficult transition from this life to the next. Although retired, Joan continues to offer advice, comfort, and support to terminally ill family, friends and acquaintances.
About Closing Chapters
Joan Stempel, a nurse with over thirty years experience has written a book which gives us a very unique and personal picture of dying. Sharing her work caring for dying family members and friends as well as hospice patients. she presents us with a compassionate approach to end-of-life issues and helps us find the words we need to address the many issues that arise when someone we love is dying. Not only is this book a wealth of information, it also takes death, which is often viewed as a frightening and sad experience, and shows us the beauty and grace which can be found in the final chapter of our lives.