Books to help you support a friend who is very ill or dying

Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying

By Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley

When Someone You Love is Dying…it’s hard to know how to help, what to do, what to say. Yet if we know how to listen and what to look for, the dying themselves can often supply the answers, letting us know what they need to hear and express to allay their fears and face death with serenity. For more than a decade hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley have tended the terminally ill. Now, in this moving and compassionate book, they share their intimate experiences with patients at the edge of life. Through these stories you’ll come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; you’ll gain new insight into the leave-taking process; and in the end you’ll discover the gifts -of wisdom, faith, and love- that the dying leave for us to share.

One You Love Is Dying: 12 Thoughts to Guide You On the Journey

By Jim Miller

When you learn someone you love is dying, you enter an experience you’ll never forget. There are so many things to think about, so many things you’ll feel. There is so much you have to do and so much you want to do, and at the same time, so much you cannot do. If you’re like most people, you feel you’re at a huge loss because you haven’t done this work before. To assist you, Jim Miller has pulled together twelve ideas to help you make the most of this time of caring for another person while you also find ways to care for yourself. These suggestions come from his own experiences and those of many others.

This book is a companion to another of his writings: When You Know You’re Dying: 12 Thoughts to Guide You Through the Days Ahead.

If I Could Be Sick For You For Just One Day

By Kathy Cramer Illustrated by Steve Harmon

Just One Day is a heartwarming story about the desire to give the gift we cannot give — to take away pain and illness from those we love. This precious story takes you through a journey from rollercoaster rides to walking in the grass barefoot to smelling flowers and playing in the snow. Just One Day is a gift book that the recipient will never forget. Full-color, water illustrations used throughout.

All three are available from Centering Corporation or 1.866.218.0101.