Sean Jeung, hospice and hospital chaplain, is a pioneer in demystifying and destigmatizing end-of-life and death and dying. Her words touch and inspire individuals; they make people pause and they make people think.
When this all began to take shape and someone would ask me who my target audience was, I would answer, “Everyone”. Anyone old enough to navigate the web and find it. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one. Anyone who has ever contemplated how their own death might come or what it might be like.
In 23 years of work as a hospital, hospice and palliative care chaplain I would often debrief about the day’s experiences through writing. I spent 23 years in the presence of sorrow, loss, suffering and joyful love. And I wrote about it. I still write about it even though I am no longer out in it on a daily basis.
Being with those doing the work of dying; being with those navigating grief when someone they love has died, has given me the rare privilege of an insider’s view to some of life’s most poignant and tender moments. Writing about it was, initially, simply my therapy; how I cared for myself.
My hope is that individuals and families in crisis over life-limiting illnesses, people wanting to better prepare for their own eventual death, and those experiencing grief will all find something in these stories that speaks directly to their heart.