We might acknowledge death as a universal experience, but
all too often we prefer to live with the illusion medicine
will rescue us from death’s grasp, if not forever, at least
this time. We allow modern science to deny death its
proper place in the fabric of life, and so delay making
end-of-life plans, forcing our caregivers to guess at our
wishes as we approach death. Yet those who grant death
its proper place, and those privileged to sit or kneel at
their bedside, encounter the intersection of the
transcendent and the imminent. All we know through reason
and experience slips out of our grasp, and we cannot yet see
what lies beyond death’s veil. We can accompany the dying,
rowing the boat, but the one who is dying must show us the
way. Death is but the final chapter, reflecting all that has
been sacred and important in that individual’s life, what
has been, what might have been and what might yet be. Ann
Lewis Boyd’s experience at the bedside of the dying has
persuaded her that Jeremy Taylor, a sixteenth century
Anglican Divine correctly observed, “One dies the way one
lives.”
The author began the journey that led to the writing
of this book at the bedside of a beloved friend, when medicine’s
illusion of power over death had been destroyed by a very
aggressive cancer. She sought a synthesis between theology and
ethics with respect to the end of life. This book marks a major
milestone but not the end of that journey. Ann Lewis Boyd
explored the Christian tradition and scriptures, applied reason
and her own experience seeking to integrate these various
threads. She believes the resulting wisdom of hope can allow us
to face death with a confidence that the compassion of friends,
who surround us in this life, mirror the Compassionate One who
welcomes us into eternity.
