Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Co

Maggie Callanan · Patricia Kelley

Feb 2012 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

In this moving and compassionate classic—now updated with new material from the authors—hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill.

Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share.

Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.

Ratings and reviews

This book was recommended to me by a friend who happens to be a hospice nurse. My best friends husband has terminal cancer. I'm so afraid of saying the wrong words. I wanted to read something to help me understand how to be more of a help than a hinder to them both. Let me say I read this book in 1 day, I could not put it down. This book has answered so many questions I've had about family members leaving this earth. Final gift has been the blessing I needed to be that rock she needs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reading this book gave me more confidence in myself to deal with someone that is dying and compassion as well. I recommend this to ease your own personal anxiety and be able to help others.

I read this after the death of my mother to try to make sense of what I observed during the week before her passing. It was comforting and touching and validated my experience. I wish I had known these things before...

About the author

Maggie Callanan has specialized in the care of the dying since 1981. She lectures widely to lay and professional audiences on death and dying, bereavement, and hospice care. Maggie is also the author of Final Journeys. She lives on the New England coast.
Patricia Kelley has worked in hospice care since 1978. She formerly held positions as Clinical Director of Montgomery Hospice in Maryland and as Director of Health Systems Leadership at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. She now works as a national and international consultant providing education and training on issues relating to hospice and palliative care. Patricia is also the author of Companion to Grief: Finding Consolation When Someone You Love Has Died.