In this six-week book study, participants will gather virtually, and in a facilitated format, examine parts of a book, themes, stories and share their responses to the book with the guidance of the group facilitator.

Each week, sections of the book are assigned to be read in preparation for the discussions that will take place online in the group gathering.

*”Dear Life” is available for order through: Local book sellers such as Words Worth Books, Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca where you can purchase it in Kindle,Audiobooks, Kobo, Hardcover or Paperback format.

EVENT DETAILS

Online Tuesday afternoons, from 2-4 PM February 13, 20 & 27; March 5, 19 & 26

Register with Mark Godin [email protected]

DEAR LIFE: A DOCTOR’S STORY OF LOVE AND LOSS

By Rachel Clarke

From MacMillan Publishers

In Dear Life, palliative care specialist Dr. Rachel Clarke recounts her professional and personal journey to understand not the end of life, but life at its end.

Death was conspicuously absent during Rachel’s medical training. Instead, her education focused entirely on learning to save lives, and was left wanting when it came to helping patients and their families face death. She came to specialize in palliative medicine because it is the one specialty in which the quality, not quantity of life truly matters. 

In the same year she started to work in a hospice, Rachel was forced to face tragedy in her own life when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He’d inspired her to become a doctor, and the stories he had told her as a child proved formative when it came to deciding what sort of medicine she would practice. But for all her professional exposure to dying, she remained a grieving daughter. 

Dear Life follows how Rachel came to understand—as a child, as a doctor, as a human being—how best to help patients in the final stages of life, and what that might mean in practice.

THE FACILITATORS

This book chat will be facilitated by Martina Steiger, Hospice of Waterloo Spiritual Care Facilitator, and Mark Godin, Volunteer Facilitator, Book Studies and Book Chats. We invite you to join us as we explore this book, engage in deep listening, and participate in meaningful conversation.