Rabbit Was

by Molly McGrath Tierney

A memoir in urgent prose, the author recounts the experience of caring for her mother as she was dying. With every word, the reader is brought closer to the thoughts and feelings of two women sharing the last moment of a life, leaving the reader feeling as though they are right there in the room. This work offers important commentary on compassionate care at the end of life. A mother committed to "living well and dying fast" and a daughter tasked with following her wishes did battle with the demands of western medicine -- where health practitioners are hard pressed to imagine that death is not just a function of the body. These two women become one along the journey to embracing death as one among the many wonders of life.

49 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2023

Reviews

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short, spare, agonizing sentences, this daughter sees her mother through her last days of life with an immovable will to honor what her mother asked for. Often when someone we care about loses a parent, we only know (or only ask enough to know) that "it was hard at the end." If you have the courage to know, this is what hard means. Impossible decisions, a tone deaf and bureaucratic medical system, ancient bitterness between siblings, a powerful connection that you can't bear to sever but have to. I read it in less than an hour and it brought me to tears more than once. The love and the pain were palpable and it was an honor to witness.