Where would we like to die? "The Way to Go" looks at the Hospice of the Fisher Home, a small, freestanding hospice in Amherst, Masssachusetts. Here, dying residents can end their lives in peace, and families can return to their roles as spouses and children instead of as exhausted caregivers.
In 2007, author Marietta Pritchard began volunteering at the Fisher Home. The experience was eye-opening, moving-- and what was more surprising-- joyful. This book brings together excerpts from the author's journal, life stories of several residents, along with profiles of a devoted professional staff working with trained volunteers-- a team collaborating to combine first-class medicine with affection and everyday comforts.
The residence is a homelike place where death is not an enemy, and where, while sadness and loss are acknowledged, everything is done to help residents end their lives in dignity and to bring peace to grieving families. This book offers a layered, candid portrait of a place where the author and other would be content to live out their days -- the way to go.