By Irvin D. Yalom and Marilyn Yalom
Internationally renowned psychiatrist Irvin Yalom had devoted his career to helping patients with their anxiety, grief and depression. Now in his mid-80s he has to face these same emotions when his wife, a feminist author, is diagnosed with cancer. After a long fulfilling marriage, with a loving family and a large circle of friends they face Marilyn’s approaching death together. In fact they wrote this book together alternating chapters and in the preface wrote “together we will write this journal of what lies ahead in the hope that our experiences and observations will provide meaning and succo(u)r not only for us but for our readers.
Marilyn asks her doctor about the use of palliative care and the wish to end her life, an idea which leaves her husband at first stunned and horrified. But little by little their chapters describe their own feelings and life as Marilyn’s health deteriorates and she tells her doctor – no life, no more.
The last third of the book is written by Irvin alone trying to remember the past, as his memory fades and relates his following few months of bereavement.
A beautifully written book for those touched by the theme.
