Attending to the Fact – Staying with Dying

Inspirational poetry reflecting perspectives of patients, carers and family members on the experiece of end-of-life care and dying.

This inspiring poetry collection explores one of the most painful subjects to make sense of in writing - caring for the dying and the dead. Drawing on the authors' work in hospices, these poems explore the experience of either supporting, or being, someone going through the physical changes and complex emotions that accompany ill-health and death.

Macmillan Nurses and church bereavement visitors, some hospice trained, will use this book: so, too, will "dippers in" and purchasers of bedside books, both before and after bereavement.'

-Plus - Christian Council on Ageing

'I would recommend this book to professionals and non-professionals alike. It is thought provoking and insightful, yet because of the topics explored, tragic in places. It is a gentle reminder of the humanitarian aspects of caring for, and staying with, the dying in this increasingly medicalized world'.

- Palliative Medicine

'The poets, Hilary Elfick and David Head, both have connections with the hospice movement, and their poems tell us much about hospice philosophy and practice in care for the dying. I found the poems in which the dying speak for themselves the most moving: "I want a stay of execution The longer the better. I can wait. Let the guilty die. Not me. Not who I am." Poems about individual patients are interspersed with poems exploring connecting themes in the poets' lives. Patients, families and carers are all represented. This inclusiveness gives the book real power. Cythia Fuller's careful arrangement and selection of the poems moves the reader from the shock and denial of first diagnosis through acceptance (although not in all cases) of the inevitablilty of death. The experience of loss and painful sharpness of memory is captured in lines like: "What is grieving, but attending to the fact that you have gone?" Dr Andrew Hoy in his introduction suggests the book should be essential reading for professional carer, as well as for patients and families. After reading (and re-reading) Hilary Elfick's "Breaking the Thread" I can see why.'

- Palliative Care Review

'The Poetry in Attending to the Fact was written by a hospice chaplain and a hospice trustee. They range over the human events and activities around death and dying, including the intimate and the undignified....