I recently read a book called Life's Final Furlong, by Irish woman Chris Barry. Chris is a well known therapist and counsellor who has helped many people, especially potential suicide victims and people coping with depression. She was a finalist in the Spirit of Ireland competition, which recognises extraordinary achievements by Irish people.
In this book she deals with the incredible true story of coping with her father's final days of life...and the almost insurmountable challenges presented to both of them. As she nursed him in his last weeks, Chris discovered that she had breast cancer.
So as she tried to ease her father's path from one world to another, she endured the ordeal of chemotherapy and the awful uncertainty of her own condition.
Her father repaid her care and love with words of wisdom (which she passes on beautifully to the reader), even as she brought her decades of nursing experience and the deep love of a daughter for a kind father to bear on the enormously difficult situation in which the two of them found themsleves.
I was moved to tears by this book, and then also to laughter. It has plenty of wisdom and advice born of first hand experience and tempered by the trained mind of a therapist.
Chris believes in an afterlife, and her spiritual nature she feels has been a factor in her meeting and overcoming the very severe double challenge she faced.
I recommend the book to anyone affected directly or indirectly (via loved ones) by cancer or any terminal illness, and struggling to cope with this gauntlet that life throws down to a many a human being.
The book is available on Amazon USA and UK and I believe it should be in every library.*****
In this book she deals with the incredible true story of coping with her father's final days of life...and the almost insurmountable challenges presented to both of them. As she nursed him in his last weeks, Chris discovered that she had breast cancer.
So as she tried to ease her father's path from one world to another, she endured the ordeal of chemotherapy and the awful uncertainty of her own condition.
Her father repaid her care and love with words of wisdom (which she passes on beautifully to the reader), even as she brought her decades of nursing experience and the deep love of a daughter for a kind father to bear on the enormously difficult situation in which the two of them found themsleves.
I was moved to tears by this book, and then also to laughter. It has plenty of wisdom and advice born of first hand experience and tempered by the trained mind of a therapist.
Chris believes in an afterlife, and her spiritual nature she feels has been a factor in her meeting and overcoming the very severe double challenge she faced.
I recommend the book to anyone affected directly or indirectly (via loved ones) by cancer or any terminal illness, and struggling to cope with this gauntlet that life throws down to a many a human being.
The book is available on Amazon USA and UK and I believe it should be in every library.*****