Customer Reviews

Exit Strategy... Leaving this Life with Grace and Gratitude

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This book made me laugh and made me cry, but most importantly made me think about how I want to live. Death is just a summary of one's life, and it is the moment to complete the life. No one really has showed me different ways of dying, or I really did not realize that there were options in dying until I read this book. I envy the way Bee concluded her life, and I am very glad that someone showed me an example early in my life. If you are not ready to die yet, I can guaranteed you that you will be better prepared when the time comes once you finish reading this book.

I read this entire book in one sitting. The topic: death and dying, is usually swept under the carpet and not ever discussed at social gatherings because it is viewed as depressing and negative. This book was anything but! Ms Collins tells the story through the discussions that she had with her elder friend, Bee Landis, over the course of many years. What a joy Bee must have been and so positive about her life as well as curious and practical about her impending death. I certainly took away the message that we handle our dying the same way we handle our living. When we approach our lives with fear and regret, when we fail to reach out and communicate with our friends and family it is truly a tragedy that follows us to our dying days. This book is a must read for everyone, because we all will be at the "end of our journey" someday and we all have special elders in our lives. Kudos also to Ms Collins for being a role model and adopting an elder to enrich her life and ours through her book, Exit Strategy. I'm going to recommend it for my book club.

A good passing is one that isn't chaotic. "Exit Strategy: Leaving this Life with Grace and Gratitude" is a guide to entering the twilight of one's life and living it with calmness and dignity that so often eludes those who are near passing. Drawing on author Kelsey Collins own experience with advice on the many aspects of old age, "Exit Strategy" asks many questions and offers many answers.

This book covers a subject that few wish to discuss, that of death, which seems rather silly as we will all get to experience this, and it is only a matter of when and how we go through that event. Ms Collins is a terrific wordsmith and I easily could envision the rich events which occurred in her shared time with both Bee Landis and others. While Bee was the main character, and what a character at that as she must have been a real joy to know, this is not just about her passing, but the riches available to all of us who take the time to know one another in this poignant passage of life. This book can be a guide for all of us as we approach that transition, as well as a reminder of the many rich souls rusting away in those units we call nursing homes or old age homes. We have lost much in the change of family lifestyles we now consider normal, whereas we formerly kept our elders with us to live out their lives in our homes and they would be the ones we looked to for guidance and wisdom, from the elders. I have gifted several friends with this book and continue to highly recommend it to others.