She Came To Live Out Loud

An Inspiring Family Journey Through Illness, Loss, and Grief

Synopsis

A realistic and moving account of one woman's battle with fatal breast cancer which includes many insights into how young families cope with progressive illness. Author Myra MacPherson spent three years with Anna Johannessen and her family, witnessing how a vibrant young woman struck in the prime of life managed to "live out loud" until the very end. Anna was 37 when first diagnosed. As she follows a difficult road through medical treatments which ultimately fail to stop the progress of her cancer we experience the full range of emotions which extended illness and dying can bring, including anger, hope, despair, love, and even laughter. Anna eventually achieves a peaceful death at home, supported by hospice care.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women in their thirties and forties. Anna's story pulls together many of the typical elements of this disease in active young women, including:

• How young and teenage children are affected by sick and dying parents
• How family and friends provide caregiving support
• Why resilience, anger, and humor sustain us
• Dealing with doctors who lack emotional acceptance of death
• Common grief responses and how friends can help

This book will work best for readers who can identify with the characters and see themselves in the story. It does not attempt to be a "how to" book on death and dying and lacks the medical detail and authoritative tone of more structured works such as The Center To Improve Care For The Dying's Handbook For Mortals. It's targeted at a mainstream demographic audience with intact families and middle-class economic situations, so readers who don't fit those parameters may not find their own stories here. With these provisos we can recommend it as a light general introduction to major issues in end of life care, with a specific focus on cancer.

Myra MacPherson was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her acclaimed bestseller Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation. Her economical writing style and keen eye for detail makes She Came To Live Out Loud a fast read with a journalistic feel.

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