Absolutely Delicious: A Chronicle of Extraordinary Dying

by Alison Jean Lester, Mary Ann Frye (Illustrator)

Overview

After a life marbled with exploration, academia, and domesticity, the writer Valerie Lester retired to a residential hospice and set about enjoying the final act of her life.

Yes. Enjoying.

She knew just where she wanted to be, with whom, doing what, and she communicated this to her family and friends with clarity and consistency. She died nine weeks later, having engaged in dying with equanimity, curiosity, and even amusement.

In Absolutely Delicious, Valerie's daughter, the writer Alison Jean Lester, describes the roads leading to her mother's cooperation with her terminal disease and her decision to forego treatments that might have prolonged her life, but also might have ruined her death. It is a story that illuminates the benefits of acceptance and the many gifts offered by daring to own one's end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838112400
Publisher:	Bench Press
Publication date:	10/22/2020
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Alison Jean Lester is the author of the novels Lillian on Life and Yuki Means Happiness, and the short story collection Locked Out: Stories Far from Home. She spent her early life in the US and the UK, and pursued her higher education in the US, China and Italy. She lived in Japan from 1991 to 1999, working as a freelance writer and voiceover artist, and giving birth to her two children. From 1999 to 2016 she lived in Singapore, where she ran her own communication skills training and coaching business, and performed and taught improvised comedy. She now lives in England. www.alisonjeanlester.com

Mary Ann Frye is a graphic designer and artist. Her career in visual communication has encompassed exhibit design for history and art museums; typographic, symbol and identity design; twenty years teaching; and heading a university program in graphic design. Study of color at the Rhode Island School of Design inspired a parallel passion for painting and the completion of a series of 1500 portraits in 1500 consecutive days. She has flown as a private pilot, sailed on a racing crew, and, lately, taken ardently to the surf.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Woman

Another Word for It

Preparation

The Notebook

Routine

Just One Room After Another

Pond Life

The Nature of Things

No Long Faces

Absolutely Delicious

This Part Stinks

Celebrating

Burying the Remains

If I Could Do It All Again

Editorial Reviews

"If you fear death or are in denial of the inevitable, this book is for you.

Using the power of stories, poems, and art, Absolutely Delicious demonstrates with care and empathy the breadth of ways people can die on their own terms, and the impact that journey can have on their loved ones. Lester reminds the reader of the universality of death by offering an honest portrayal of three approaches to living one's last days, providing the space for each of us to consider our own priorities, helping to pave the way toward realizing our own compassionate end."

Kim Callinan, President and CEO, Compassion & Choices

"This masterfully written and illustrated narrative strikes the bullseye dead on and arrives at a very important time. It will resonate on so many levels with readers, be they supporting someone dying, or dying themselves. A terrific read for me, as a senior oncologist and now a heavily invested patient."

John K. Erban, MD, Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Former Clinical and Assoc Director for Clinical Research, Tufts Medical Center Cancer Center

"Absolutely Delicious is like a gift. It is tender, light-footed, funny, painful and gallant, and in writing with courage and wit about dying well, Lester has written about living well."

Nicci Gerrard, novelist and author of What Dementia Teaches Us about Love

"The book encapsulates, in the very best way, how we ultimately consist of our relationships and effects on other people, and how dying can be a very beautiful event."

Kate Edgar, Executive Director, The Oliver Sacks Foundation

"In chronicling her mother's terminal illness, Lester shows us something rare and wonderful: that facing the end of life can be done with directness, equanimity, and humor. As a palliative care physician I've read countless stories about dying patients but none as engaging and original as this, opening my eyes to what's possible for future patients and families I care for."

Jane deLima Thomas, MD, Palliative Care Physician, Harvard Medical School

"Compelling, moving, brave, and unflinching."

Neal Baer, MD, Producer and writer of ER, Law & Order Special Victims Unit and Designated Survivor

"In this memoir, Lester thoughtfully captures the emotional roller coaster of the loss of two parents and one aunt. I practiced medicine for 31 years, but even so I learned and was touched, and, surprisingly, found great comfort in the way it helped me revisit, and reassess, the painful death of a close friend over a decade ago."

Thomas A. Tesoriero, MD, Retired Internist - Kaiser Permanente

From the Publisher