Analysis Of Final Gifts By Maggie Callahan And Patricia Kelley

This summer I was assigned Final Gifts by Maggie Callahan and Patricia Kelley. Both authors worked as hospice nurses and were able to share their thirty-three years of first- hand experiences and knowledge with us to help better our understanding of the special awareness’s, needs, and communications of the dying. The book focuses profoundly on the physical, metaphysical, and psychological traits the dying encounter weeks or days before death. Both Kelley and Callahan are experts at observing every little behavior of the sick and being able to pinpoint specific signs that mean death is approaching. Not only does this book concentrate on the sick and their needs, but it also fits in the families and their duties in such hard times. Final

These stages include denial, anger, bargaining, and eventually acceptance. Denial is the first stage of nearing death. The patient and/or their family does not want to accept the situation they’re in. The second stage, anger, is when the patient and/or family is frustrated with whatever is going on and tries to change it or make negotiations, and that leads into the third stage, bargaining. Last but not least comes acceptance. After going through all of these steps of nearing death, they start realizing that there is nothing more they can do to change their circumstances. Time is up and it’s time to move

This book made me think about things I never really thought about before. Things like listening and paying close attention to the sick because interpreting what they’re doing can make such a huge impact or difference. I personally never had to go through the hard times of losing a loved one, so reading this book was very informative and pretty fascinating. Both Callahan and Kelley did a great job of organizing this book and making it very easy to understand. Each and every section had stories that explained the chapter title and the meaning of it. For instance, chapter 8, “Seeing a place: “I see where I am going” talked about the dying seeing a place not visible to anyone else. In this chapter the authors shared multiple stories including Bobby’s. Bobby was a thirty- two year old man who was awfully ill. He was very weak and could barely talk so he communicated through eye blinks. Bobby wasn’t just experiencing physical pain; he was experiencing mental pain as well. He was incredibly anxious and uneasy about where he was going to go when he eventually passed away. Bobby’s hospice nurse and brother both assured him he would be going home to Jesus. This calmed Bobby down and he was able to die a peaceful death. This short story reflected on the topic of this chapter and what Kelley and Callahan were tying to convey. I recommend for everyone to read this book at least once in their life. The