We Are So Lightly Here

It is possible to spend one's last months dying in a state of emancipation and acceptance. But it rarely happens, and certainly not overnight. Life—in part —is the preparation. Western culture perceives death as a defeat and cancer as an enemy that must be fought. The prolonging of life must be encouraged, no matter the futility and anguish. To stop debilitating and experimental treatments is to lose hope. We Are So Lightly Here is the true story of how one ordinary man found the courage to transition from life with terminal cancer to death as a result of, paradoxically, his affirmation of life. Deborah Golden Alecson poses new ways to understand hope.

Deborah Golden Alecson is adjunct faculty for The School of Health Sciences at Excelsior College, where she teaches courses about spirituality in life transitions and health-care ethics. She is the special education consultant for The Pediatric Palliative Care Program at HospiceCare in the Berkshires. She is also an autism specialist in private practice. Her previous books are Alternative Treatments for Children Within the Autistic Spectrum (Keats Publishing, 1999) and Lost Lullaby (University of California Press, 1995).

Praise for We Are So Lightly Here

"Many of us will be called to help a loved one during the dying process. In this book Alecson movingly chronicles the journey from chaos to clarity she took with her husband. This hard-earned knowledge will be a beacon for others faced with similar difficult choices and questions." - D.J. Elpern, M.D.

"A deeply humane memoir about the last months of life with her beloved husband. We Are So Lightly Here is an intimate love story, a primer for caring for the dying, a work which reminds us that life is finite, and that we can face death with clarity and compassion, and perhaps…wisdom." - Sonia Pilcer, author of The Holocaust Kid and other novels.