STORIES AND INSIGHTS

A retired Florida-based hospice chaplain reflects on the lessons he’s learned over more than two decades.

For his nonfiction debut, Dole draws on his experiences dealing with dying people and their friends and relatives (and, in one case, a loyal dog) from 1994 to 2016. He also looks back on his own life, including time spent with his wife, Cindy. The bulk of his book, though, centers on his touching conversations with hospice patients over the years: “True wisdom and guidance in a world that is full of schedules and impersonal interactions is a beautiful thing to find,” he writes, and this sentiment is amply reflected in his book’s many stories—highly personal interactions with people who no longer have schedules running their lives. In warm, touching prose that’s never overly sentimental, Dole recalls various patients he’s known—he refers to them all by first names—and details what he learned from them. “Arnie taught me to listen more and to talk less depending on the patient's needs,” he reflects at one point. “He also taught me to let stories connect you as your experiences intermingle which can result in deep relationships built upon a shared trust.” Dole also reminds readers that hospices don’t only deal with older people; for instance, he tells of Brad and Holly, a young couple who were not only facing the prospect of Brad’s death, but also “the death of their dreams together.” Even so, this pair, he recalls, had “the gift of including others into their life quickly, including me.” As might be expected, a strong element of Christianity is woven through the book, which will appeal to religious readers, but the book’s simple moments of honesty and humanity will appeal to secular audiences, as well.

A quietly powerful collection of end-of-life stories.