Endnotes: An Intimate Look at the End of Life

by Ruth Ray , Ph.D.

Overview

In the summer of 1996, Ruth Ray, a gerontologist in her forties, befriended an eighty-two-year-old man suffering from Parkinson's. The two remained close until the end of his life, sharing stories and memories while building a deep relationship. Part memoir, part biography, Endnotes explores how people construct meaning through their interactions with others. With grace and wit, Ray situates her friend's past experiences and present relationships within the theories and literature of gerontology, providing a deeper understanding of autonomy at the end of life. She also delves into the complexities of sexuality and intimacy in old age, communication across disabilities and age groups, the disabling nature of nursing homes, and the trials of death and dying. Writing as both a woman and a gerontologist, Ray finds that the "quality of care" we provide for others requires not only an understanding of the relationships that have given a person's life meaning but also a willingness to accept and share deeply in the emotional process of physical and mental decline.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231144612
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2008
Series:	End-of-Life Care: A Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ruth E. Ray teaches writing, composition theory, and women's studies at Wayne State University. She serves on the board of trustees of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operates a Center for Creative Aging, and she is co-founder of [e-mail], which supports community-based research and teaching, including projects on creative aging and intergenerational learning. She is the author of Beyond Nostalgia: Aging and Life-Story Writing and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Aging Studies.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Passionate Scholarship
2. Home
3. Making Ourselves Understood
4. New Year's Eve
5. A Lamentable Situation
6. Those Little Ordinary Things
7. Passion's Progress
8. Activities
9. Diaper Is a Dirty Word
10. Care Conference
11. Empty Rooms
12. Ethics of Care
Epilogue
Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

Margaret Morganroth Gullette

Ruth E. Ray was in her forties, teaching writing in a nursing home, when she and one of the residents fell in love. This is their love story, and it is not only unexpected but charming and credible. Paul is a marvelous literary creation and a wonderful person: funny, gentle, open, loving, self-aware. Ray comes across as sensitive to others, careful of herself, unbiased, and unashamed-excellent qualities for a writer and writing-teacher who wanted to become a feminist gerontologist and a passionate advocate for rethinking our relation to older people. This memoir is sui generis. Ray has written something as startling and unflinching as good fiction can be.

— Margaret Morganroth Gullette, author of Aged by Culture and the prize-winning Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife

Amanda Barusch

This work is part of a well-established narrative tradition in gerontology. It effectively uses the devices of that tradition to illustrate broad themes related to aging and end-of-life care and will raise the emotional awareness and empathy of its readers.

— Amanda Barusch, Department of Social Work and Community Development, University of Otago, New Zealand, author of Love Stories of Later Life: A Narrative Approach to Understanding Romance

Editorial Reviews

A wonderful insider's view of the needs and internal struggles one faces during the last leg of life's journey.

— Elaine T. Jurkowski

Journal of Gerontological Social Work

A riveting reminder of what happens when a feminist refigures the politics of sex, age and death.

— Margaretta Jolly

Ageing & Society

A wonderful insider's view of the needs and internal struggles one faces during the last leg of life's journey.

Journal of Gerontological Social Work - Elaine T. Jurkowski

A riveting reminder of what happens when a feminist refigures the politics of sex, age and death.

Ageing & Society - Margaretta Jolly