Passing
Page 23
At some point after the second brain surgery and the Gamma Knife radiation, it was clear to Margaret that she wasn’t going to get better, that the equivalent of a miracle at Lourdes wasn’t an option, and she decided she was going to die at home in her own bed, with her cats beside her, and who can say that she was wrong?
Not me.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY THANKS TO Lynn Nesbit and to Robert Weil, without whose enthusiasm and support this book would never have been written, to my dear friend and assistant Dawn Lafferty, who lived through the experience with me, and to Colleen Sinon for her unstinted help and friendship. This book will serve as a tribute and a gesture of thanks to all Margaret’s caregivers, but especially to Donna Engle, Laura Sanders and Thom Schwartz, to Brooke Newman for reading every chapter and for her constant encouragement, and above all to Alain C. J. de Lotbinière, M.D., doctor and gentleman.
PERMISSIONS
Excerpts from How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter by Sherwin B. Nuland, copyright © 1994 by Sherwin B. Nuland. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from “The Deluge at Norderney” in Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen, copyright © 1961 by Isak Dinesen. Published by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from “Survival Rates of Patients with Metastatic Malignant Melanoma” by A. Sandru, S. Voinea, E. Panaitescu, and A. Blidaru from Journal of Medicine and Life 7, no. 4 (October–December 2014): 572–76.
Excerpt from “Brain Tumor” used with permission of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. All rights reserved.
“The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac,” from Blue Horses by Mary Oliver. Copyright © 2014 by Mary Oliver. Published by Penguin Press, New York.
“I Worried,” from Swan by Mary Oliver. Copyright © 2010 by Mary Oliver. Published by Beacon Press, Boston. Used herein by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.
“Immune System, Unleashed by Cancer Therapies, Can Attack Organs” by Matt Richtel. From the New York Times. © 2016 The New York Times. All rights reserved.
“When Death Is Near: A Caregiver’s Guide,” copyright 2008 by Hospice of Santa Cruz County, California. Published by Quality of Life Publishing Co., Naples, FL (www.QoLpublishing.com). Used under license.
“Twentieth Century Fox,” words and music by the Doors. Copyright © 1966 (renewed), Doors Music Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Alfred Music.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MICHAEL KORDA lives on a farm in Dutchess County, New York, in a small town whose most distinguishing features are a supermarket and a Dunkin’ Donuts, and which he wrote about in Country Matters. Editor-in-chief emeritus of Simon & Schuster, he is also the author of Queenie, Horse People, and Charmed Lives.
ALSO BY MICHAEL KORDA
Catnip: A Love Story
Alone: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory
Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia
With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain
Cat People (with Margaret Korda)
Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Horse Housekeeping: Everything You Need to Know to Keep a Horse at Home (with Margaret Korda)
Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life
Marking Time: Collecting Watches and Thinking about Time
Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero
Country Matters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse
Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900–1999
Another Life: A Memoir of Other People
Man to Man: Surviving Prostate Cancer
The Immortals
The Fortune
Queenie
Worldly Goods
Charmed Lives: A Family Romance
Success!
Power! How to Get It, How to Use It
Male Chauvinism! How It Works
Copyright © 2019 by Success Research Corporation
All rights reserved
First Edition
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