Home Safe - Mitchell Consky

 This is my favorite book I've read in 2023.  It is  memoir by a young man whose father is diagnosed during the pandemic with aggressive liver cancer.  Their family comes together to care for him at the end of life at home, many of them healthcare professionals impacted by being essential workers.  Throughout, they demonstrate so much love and caring for each other.

It made me reflect that we all still have a single shared experience that we can relate to: the losses suffered in a million different ways during two years of panic, fear, confusion and isolation during Covid.  It made me think we need a national day of recognition to honor the individuals and experiences we lost due to the pandemic.  It made me think that this is something we can share with each other instead of the vitriol and divisiveness that is separating us.

Quotes:

"[Caregivers] ...caring for yourself when you want to save someone else is easier said than done."

"[on not being able to hug during the pandemic] Hugs are like the universal language for saying 'You're going to be okay'...The word 'embrace' has a Latin origin brace deriving from the word braccia which in the combination braccia coro circumdare means  'puts one's arms around'.

"Life is a series of compromises.  He told her its not about picking sides as much as it's about choosing to participate in the inevitable struggles life throws at you.  Giving up when life gets hard, that's what you want to avoid."

[On parents] "The love that they gave me stayed with me long after they died.  The love I give you will stay with you too.  Because that love is immortal.  That love will bring us together no matters what's happening in the world. No matter the circumstances that keep us apart."

Published: 2022  Read: September 2023  Genre: Biography

The Hummingbird - Stephen Kiernan

Finally, a wonderful read!  It's been a slow year without much sure-fire reads.  This book was very satisfying.

This is the story of a hospice nurse who goes to care for an elderly history professor who is dying of cancer.  Her caring spirit is tested by his sarcastic, negative banter.  When she returns home after work, she must deal with a husband suffering from PTSD after having served in Iraq multiple tours.
She breaks down the barriers built by the professor by reading his unpublished manuscript that describes the bombing of the Oregon coast by a Japanese pilot during WWII and the subsequent relationship of the town and the pilot in the post war aftermath.

Her compassion is absolutely inspiring.  The author lets us know how she feels yet contrasts it with how she reacts, both to the professor and her husband.  There are lessons to be learned here.  Highly recommended read, my pick for best so far this year.

Published: 2015  Read: May 2016  Genre: Fiction