She Came to Live Out Loud: An Inspiring Family Journey Through Illness, Loss, and Grief

by Myra MacPherson

Book Overview

Acclaimed author and journalist Myra MacPherson takes the reader on a remarkably intimate journey into the world of Anna, a vibrant young woman, as she and her family live with dying. Threaded through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684822644
• ISBN13: 9780684822648
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Terminal cancer, a tape recorder, and some sensitive souls.

This is an unusually intimate portrait of an unusual woman dying of breast cancer. The author planned such a portrait before meeting any likely subject. Then she was introduced to Anna Johannessen and the wheels began to turn. Anna was an inveterately cheerful extrovert, ensconced in a loving circle of family and friends - a survivor of stage 1 breast cancer. Her life had been blessed up until the day it was discovered that her cancer had returned. She and her supporters then endured three years of a gradually failing struggle to buy her more time. MacPherson, instantly won by Anna's frank and appealing friendliness, came on board and followed the family through Anna's ordeal, her death, and the two years of grieving beyond. The choice of the title of this book, "she came to live out loud," I suspect is not simply inspired by Emile Zola's proclamation quoted on the flyleaf but by the fact that much of what appears in the book is transparently adapted from tape recorded sessions. We hear Anna's natural speech, complete with tacking back and forth, switching topics, qualifying, digressing into humorous asides or turning tearfully squeaky. Telling exchanges between members of her inner circle, moving sessions with her children's bereavement counselor, Dottie Ward-Wimmer, and spontaneous outpourings at her memorial service also appear. In reading the account, we become virtual eavesdroppers in the Johannessen household. The book is valuable from a dozen angles. The bereavement counselor's advice about children facing the death of a parent is exceptionally wise and comforting. The vignettes of Anna's treatment are informative and at times chilling. Discussions of timing the switch from aggressive treatment to palliative care are important to any caregiver to the terminally ill, and as is the detailed portrait of the dying process. Finally, the subject herself, Anna Johannessen, is an inspiration to stricken families and a range of cancer survivors. My only worry with readership is that for some women in Anna's shoes, badly in need of the inspiration she might offer, Anna may appear too brave, too loved, to surrounded by caring supporters, in a word not enough like themselves to turn to for comfort. Plus the fact that, despite everything, she dies. Nonetheless I would recommend it to the full range of potential readers. [In the following excerpts, Anna and Dottie Ward-Wimmer discuss whether her dying at home will make home a traumatic place for the children] Anna: "Once I'm in morphine land, I'll be pretty whacked out. I just don't want to traumatize them. I think it's going to be bad enough." Dottie [taking deep breath]: "Kids are traumatized by things they don't understand, by things they can't participate in - that they have to stand there and watch and they can't do anything about. ...Children are not necessarily traumatized [by experiencing dying]. I've worked with literally hundreds of families that have ma

An honest, gentle and poignant story.

Families across America are dealing with the fall-out from cancer and how the loss of one family member affects all. This book is about one mother's journey (and thus, her family's) through terminal cancer. It's thought-provoking, heart-breaking and yet inspiring. Once you've read it, you will have a better understanding of what your friends and family members are going through as they deal with their cancer. I read it after my father was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. As a result, I was better able to "live out loud" with him and my mother in the last months we had together.

A touching book about a brave woman's struggle with cancer

Myra MacPherson's book about Anna Johannessen and her family is the most moving and most inspiring story about how she and her friends and family deal with her terminal illness I've ever read. It's an inspiration to deal with death and dying much more openly and honestly than people usually do and at the same time a stinging indictment of the insensitivity of the medical establishment and the health insurance industry. "She came to live out loud" touches the heart without being a tearjerker in any way. I first heard about this book on an NPR talk show and was moved by the way Ms. MacPherson talked about her meeting with Anna and how she had been welcomed into the most private moments of the family. A wonderful book, I recommend it wholeheartedly. (By the way, you can listen to the archive edition of The Diane Rehm Show by going to Http://www.wamu.org/dr/shows/drarc_990222.html#thursday)

Thoroughly engaging and thought provoking

Eight weeks ago, my sister died from breast cancer. Her valiant fight led her through a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, two bone marrow transplants, radiation and cervical fusion. McPherson perfectly captured the marks of fear, trust, frustration, anger, peace, love and hope that such a journey entails. I was deeply touched by this book as it epitomizes my firsthand experience. Like Anna, my sister was strong and independent, almost until the very end, when she had to relinquish the reins and let others do for her. It was my honor and priviledge to do what I could. That final trip was sacred and something I will never forget. Society does not like to confront serious illness and death, but McPherson paints a beautiful portrait of Anna, her family and friends that comforts despite the pain and loss.

A tribute to the triumph of the human spirit in adversity

This book inspires, educates, and provides direction for individuals and families who face choices for living with life-threatening illness. As a family studies teacher, I encourage students to read books that give them more options for living their lives. Myra MacPherson has written engagingly about the realities of living with a life-threatening illness and surviving the death of a family member. Unlike other writers, MacPherson expands the account of Anna and her family with information that enables readers to make informed decisions about illness, health care, caregiving, helping children cope, hospice care and grief support.