{"id":449,"date":"2014-05-22T16:56:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T23:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=449"},"modified":"2014-05-22T16:56:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T23:56:56","slug":"given-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=449","title":{"rendered":"Given Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Helen<\/a>Given Time: Living Our Last Months Together<\/em> by Helen Park Bigelow, which I\u2019ve just finished reading, is an unflinching look at the emotional and physical landscape a care-giving spouse or partner must traverse in those last months before death. Helen\u2019s husband Ed had a melanoma removed in 2005. The surgery seemed successful, and regular follow-up tests and scans at first came out clear. But three years later the melanoma returned and metastasized throughout his body.<\/p>\n

To offer a flavor of the book, I can\u2019t do better than to quote the blurb by Fithian Press<\/a>, the book\u2019s publisher: \u201cThe book deals honestly with the process of dying, an ordeal shared by both of them. It also deals with the process of staying alive and in love until the ordeal is over\u2026 [Bigelow] writes with brutal honesty about her anger and grief over what has become of her husband and herself. The book isn\u2019t a manual about how to take care of a dying man, but it makes the reader well aware of what a grueling job it is. \u201cSo this is it,\u201d she writes. \u2018This chemo routine is the rest of our lives together\u2026and goddamn it, it\u2019s going to be as good for both of us as I can make it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Reading this book set me to thinking about my husband\u2019s and my circle of friends. We\u2019re all of an age where we\u2019re facing mortality, both our own and our partners\u2019. Physical infirmities creep up on us. Memories start to fail. The mechanisms of the heart become clogged. I know we\u2019ll all do what we have to do, to the best of our abilities, when loved ones need our care, and that, if we are the ones whose lives are ending, we hope to have someone as caring as Helen to tend our passage. I\u2019m grateful that services such as hospice are available. Most of all, I am inspired by Helen\u2019s love of beauty to seek it out in my own life. Whether my time is counted in decades or years or even months, I want every day to be touched by grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given Time: Living Our Last Months Together by Helen Park Bigelow, which I\u2019ve just finished reading, is an unflinching look at the emotional and physical landscape a care-giving spouse or partner must traverse in those last months before death. Helen\u2019s husband Ed had a melanoma removed in 2005. The surgery seemed successful, and regular follow-up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,88,9],"tags":[197,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}