22 Comments
Oct 17Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

Thank you for this post, Shemaiah. I'm reminded of my Mom's death a few years ago and how difficult watching her quick decline over the course of a couple weeks. Wondering how we would care for her after a series of strokes was stressful and difficult, even though we'd previously had many conversations about end-of-life issues. It was a blessing, however, to know my Mom was fearless and honest about her life, and death.

I've started reading "briefly perfectly human" by death doula Alua Arthur. Preparing ourselves and those we love for the end is so important. That said, my Mom raised me on Monty Python and hence, an appreciation of gallows humor to deal with those things that may make us uncomfortable: "this parrot is dead! No, he's not, he's merely resting."

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Mark, thank you for sharing all of this. I heard another story of humor at the end this weekend. A friend said when her 99 yr old gma tired this summer, the friend’s brother could not come to the bed in time as he was in other country. The family brought the phone to her for FaceTime, she told her grandson not to have FOMO . Even as she was dying hysterically funny. 🥰

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Oct 14Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

Great post!

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And here I was worried people may not like to talk about death.....as much as I do :)

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Oct 14Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

This is one of the many reasons I feel drawn to chaplaincy - honoring the lives and the Imago Dei in others as they leave this world.

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I love this and would like to hear more. Maybe in our next letter!

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Oct 14Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

Beautiful. Thank you!

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So glad this resonated!

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Oct 13Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

This is good.

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It was good to write it all out.

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Oct 13Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

Wonderful. 💚

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So glad it resonated

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Oct 13Liked by Shemaiah Gonzalez

I returned from Kenya Friday. My experience there lent credence to what you wrote for today's Undaunted Joy. I look forward to sharing with you

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I look forward to hearing!

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So glad this was written and shared!

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I am grateful you read

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Thank you for this writing. It brings me peace.

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I am so glad. Thank you

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I’ve been asked to go up to an open mic today for a celebration of life, and this post gets me at a good time. I have not written anything yet. It is for this cousin (https://zinagomezliss.substack.com/p/silence-the-pianos-and-with-muffled) Death and the thought of it hardly escapes me too. Thanks for writing this as it helps me to try to figure things out. Now I have to try to draft something. Perhaps I will just think out loud on Substack…

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I hope it went well and glad my writing could help you sort it out a bit.

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Thanks, Shemaiah. I am writing my post now about how it all went. It was hard and the singing was better than the speaking bit. I am writing a set of essays now to process this all… (There will be a link to the singing too. Thank goodness, I think we did okay! I was a bit shaky.)

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