Customer Reviews

A Necessary End

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked this book up at a garage sale, didn't really know what to expect. The author's story has helped me in my undertaking to be my Dad's caretaker. It shows how we all deal differently with this challenge in our lives. I didn't agree with some of the ways the author handled things, but it validates that we all have to find our own way. This book is a quick read, it's worth the time.

In recounting his parents final years and decline, Nick Taylor parallels the decisions and painful adjustments of many baby boomers. Each one of us must cope as best we can with family illness and eventual loss, but it is interesting seeing his ways of dealing with it.
A slim 194 pages, so it's a quick read. Recognizing our parents personal needs, but constrained by financial and physical burdens, it will be hard to handle their slide from vital active people, into dependents.
Reading individual accounts like this gives us some mental and emotional preparation.

I was so engaged and moved by this account of Nick Taylor and his parents in their end years. I have been and am the caretaker for my mother, and I found that reading this book strengthened me to do better, and has helped me to be sensitive and accepting of my mother, and of myself. I can't recommend this book enough. It should not be allowed to be out-of-print!

This book could have been a tender and healing accounting the changes which aging brings to relationships. It could have been a thoughtful discussion of the practical aspects of nursing home decisions. However Taylor clearly considered it all an inconvenience and a hassle. I suspect he wrote the book as therapy. The woodblock prints were the best part.