This heartwarming story of a daughter's undying love for her dying mother, who loved with her last breath and beyond, will move and inspire not only those who face or fear death, but also those who love and embrace life.
There was more living to do. For us, “terminal” didn’t carry a termination date.
This story born of death is full of life.
When All That’s Left of Me Is Love is an intensely personal story about one family’s determination to enjoy life while anticipating death.
Linda Campanella’s emotional account of her last year with her mother, Nancy Sachsse, wrote itself on the pages of her mind as she lay awake unable to sleep in the days and weeks following Nan’s death one year and one day after a diagnosis of terminal cancer. It is a heartwarming memoir filled with insights and inspirations that will help anyone jolted into confronting the inevitability and sudden imminence of death.
Join the author as she reconstructs and relives a year of living while dying and, in the process, comes to terms with the pain and permanence of her loss. When All That’s Left of Me Is Love is indeed a sad story born of death, but it is above all an uplifting portrait of living, loving, believing, and letting go. It is a celebration of the special bond between mothers and daughters, a touching love story, a spiritual journey, a poetry lesson, and even a case for happy hour.
This story of a daughter’s undying love for her dying mother will move and inspire not only those who face or fear death but also those who love and embrace life.
This book is truly a testament of love, as the title suggests.It is about love refined and deepened by grief and gratitude.It is a tribute to a mother who loved with her last breath and beyond. It is the story of a daughter who gives herself away through the gift of her pen.
·Sharon G. Thornton, Ph.D., Professor of Pastoral Theology at AndoverNewton Theological School
Excerpt
As incredible as she was, I am not writing this book to tell my mother’s story. I could not do justice to it. For now, I will let the obituary speak for itself; I poured my heart into it and cannot do any better. Rather, this book is about the road we traveled together. It is about how she lived in her last year (right up to her last week), not about how she died. It is about how she and our family managed to enjoy what was described at the celebration of life as “a magical year.” It is about being able to say, “I have no regrets.” Non, je ne regrette rien. It is about holding on while letting go.
In recalling the past year and wishing (for reasons I’m still not entirely clear about) to share certain highlights of it, I am able to draw on what amounts to a chronology serendipitously established as a result of my being, in addition to a chronic keeper of emails, also a prolific producer of them. I am not particularly proud of either habit and actually have been engaged in an ongoing battle with myself, the goal of which is to email less and talk more, particularly when it comes to professional interactions. There are many reasons why I reflexively pull out the keyboard to write (as opposed to picking up the phone to gab). One primary reason, and it certainly applies in the context of my mother’s illness, is that I process my thoughts and emotions by writing. There is something therapeutic and cathartic about the act of putting things down on paper. This act is, for me at least, helpful, calming, focusing, healing.
So in grieving the loss of my mother (less than two months ago), I have pulled out the keyboard and am writing. Though some of what I am recalling and writing is painful, overall this process surely will help heal the rip in my heart.
I miss my mother more than I can say and every bit as much as I imagined I would. Or more. Selfishly, I do hope a little bit of her can live on through what I share on these pages. And if our experience during our last year together can reassure or inspire others who are facing the end of a cherished relationship, then even in death her generous spirit and big heart will be at work in the world.
Join me as we travel together on the road called "Aging." I will be sharing my personal experiences with you and offer ideas on how we can better navigate the complex byways of our older years. Grief, healing, generations, ancestors, and more.
This book is an autobiographical account of the lessons I learned about life and how I was able to apply them to inspire, motivate and empower others in my own work as a firefighter, as well in my daily life as a husband, a father and a man. When I w
