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Memoir of “A Good Daughter”
A friend, Christina Puchalski, MD, MS, who listened to me over an entire lunch time speak passionately about my parents, asked me to write a piece for the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management—a seemingly unlikely request—to remind physicians and nurses of the deeply human stories of their patients. So, I did…with gratitude for having been asked.
Seeing my parents through their old age, and death, was both an ordinary and an amazing experience. In retrospect, it felt as if I stepped out of my own life for that entire decade. Memoir of "A Good Daughter" is about the complexity and wonders of the gift of accompanying them on the final stages of their life’s journey.
From Editor’s Note: All too often, we can get caught up in the tangles of reductionist thinking to simplify rushed clinical settings. Conversations with family members might be focused on accomplishing our necessary goals: pain management of their loved ones, advance directives, the shift to focus on comfort, sharing probabilities about the success of further interventions, and so forth.
Opening: My parents' final years were a gift. That time brought challenges, to them, to my husband, and to me. Some we met with struggle, most we met with grace, all we met with love. We lived fully and together grieved the coming ends of their lives.
Brown, Carolyn T.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2012, Volume 45 , Issue 1 , 145 – 149