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Book Review Pro | Karen Pool
Book Review Pro | Karen Pool
Author : Hadley Vlahos
Genre : Nonfiction
This is a tender and illuminating book to read. Hadley Vlahos is a hospice nurse, who had a faith crisis as a teenager when a young friend of hers died as the result of a football injury. She’s doubting at first, when the individuals she is serving claim to be talking to relatives who have passed on as they near death. And yet, over and over again, she sees the evidence of this occurrence in her own work.
Our ideas about dying are confusing at best. Will our memories flash before our eyes? Will regrets consume our thoughts? For most people dying will be a slower process, one that can be eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with people she’s worked with.
“My experience with Edith made me think about Alzheimer’s patients differently. It’s easy to focus on the fact that, in so many ways they don’t seem to be here anymore. But where are they? I now suspect—although I can’t prove—that while they are still physically here, beyond a certain point Alzheimer’s patients are more firmly planted in whatever place we go next, on the other side.” Edith—and many other dementia patients I’ave worked with over the years—have done things, that from a scientific or medical perspective, they shouldn’t be able to do.”
“Lately, I had been practicing coming from a place of empathy rather than sympathy. Empathy is the ability to feel for a person and their situation without being personally affected by it. Empathy allows me to be present and compassionate without taking on a situation as my own, and it has allowed me to continue being a good nurse without burning out. It has allowed me to be a witness to one of the most important moments in a person and their loved ones’ lives.”
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