A Holy Errand: new book by our own Fawn!

[leslieann]

I was a fan of Fawn's blog so I paid attention to her signature line here on SLF when it changed to reflect a book she had published. Anyway, I got it and read it and would like to recommend it. The book is little stories from her work as a hospice nurse; the stories are little only because they are short and succinct. They are not little in content, not by any means. Many are touching; some are funny, but all of them spoke to me of the remarkable courage of everyday people in the everyday situation of dying or being with a dying family member. At the same time the book is not sentimental: it is a clear-eyed description of some bits of shared history between Fawn and her patients.

I have always been interested in the work of giving care to the dying and their families, at least since my parents were attended by hospice workers, both in the same year. I did a lot of work with pregnancy and birth in my early career, and of course that work is also about dying. But with the death of my father, I became aware that the awe and privilege I felt in witnessing the transition to life during birth was the same awe and privilege one could feel in helping people in the transition out of life. Fawn's book captures much of that, with a humble, collaborative perspective.

Anyway, there you go! I really liked it, and I think I'll be sharing it among the many helpers in my networks, but I also wanted to bring it up here on the forum because the author is a member of our community.


Leslie

[Valley]

Congratulations Fawn!

[catherine]

Thanks, leslieann! It's so great to have people in this forum so enthusiastically supporting the work of others who are perhaps to humble to toot their own horns!

Am definitely going to check it out

[MamaM]

Congrats...the is wonderful~~~~

[Tussiemussies]

Congratulations Fawn!

[Fawn]

leslieann--thank you for the lovely review.

I usually describe the book as a combination of hospice stories intertwined with what the dying have taught me about living well.

If anyone wants to purchase it, it is available through Amazon.com in both print and Kindle versions. You can also buy it from me (I get more money that way.) If anyone is interested, send me a e-mail through this site.

Moderators: if that is too much shameless promotion, please delete the offending portions.

[Tradd]

Yay! Congratulations, Fawn!

[Jilly]

I have been checking with my library system ever since you were published. Hope it shows up soon.

[Rogar]

That's excellent! Anyone who has devoted a career to hospice nursing has my profound respect. A book about it is icing on the cake. I read the sample pages on Amazon and was impressed with the writing style and interesting sounding accounts.

[Fawn]

I have been checking with my library system ever since you were published. Hope it shows up soon.

The book was self-published, it is unlikely to show up in your library.

I gave my library a copy and they put it in the special collections: local authors, not in the circulating library. :(

[Float On]

I'd looked at it a while back on Amazon and marked it so I'd remember to buy two copies later. I want my church library have a copy as well. I'd much rather a larger portion of $ go to you, Fawn, so I'll email you. Glad I waited!!!

[Kestra]

I just wanted to bump this thread and encourage everyone to check out Fawn's book. I bought and finished it and would highly recommend it. I put a review on Amazon so won't repeat myself here. I also recommended it to my Facebook friends.

Here I just wanted to add a few personal details that didn't seem appropriate to post on Amazon or FB.

Fawn, you are one of the people (there are quite a few of you) on this and the old SL forums that have always been inspirational to me. I guess, some people's lives or personalities come through better than others in a forum community. And some people's stories just resonate with one's own. And you were one of those, for me, Fawn. But I didn't know much about your work life. Thanks for sharing this in your book. If I thought you were pretty awesome before with your personal life, I think you are that much more awesome for your work in hospice care. (Sorry for using the word "awesome" - revealing my age and trying to be lighthearted so you don't think I'm stalkery - I'm not, I swear.)

Life and death and medicine stuff have always been interesting to me. I probably think about such things more than the average person, though you never know what people think about. My prior career was in veterinarian medicine, so there is a lot of death, but not quite the personal connection that you were able to have with your clients. Though, we do have a decent number of pet owners who we become close to, in similar circumstances with their animals.

So it was very interesting to me to learn more about the human side of things, which I am not quite as familiar with.

I also really appreciate the reminder to pay attention to what is happening in the present and to stay connected to loved ones before it is too late. I am really not good at that in real life. I did post a message to my Facebook friends, which is a big scary step for someone like me, who doesn't do emotional stuff easily. And I also am posting this message to you, and to the other forum members.

Thank you, Fawn, for the inspiration, for the reminders, and for sharing such an important part of your life with us.

[Fawn]

Kestra-Thank you for going outside your comfort zone to share your thoughts and feelings about the book and folks here at the SL forums. It means a lot to me that other people find the stories significant/helpful. That was my intention in sharing them. Thanks for the Amazon review. (leslieann--thank you for yours as well!)

I have to agree with you about the great people on this forum. I have learned many, many things from the folks here and believe that I am a better person for it.

[Float On]

"Signifcant" is the right word. I'm on my 2nd reading of it because there are several short statements that Fawn makes in her writings that are ones worth writing down and remembering. I intend to write a review on Amazon too....after this 2nd reading. I'm really glad I got two copies, one for me and one for church library.