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Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19
During a pandemic lockdown full of pyjama dance parties, life talks, and final goodbyes, a family helps a father die with dignity.
In April 2020, journalist Mitchell Consky received bad news: his father was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer, with less than two months to live. Suddenly, he and his extended family — many of them healthcare workers — were tasked with reconciling the social distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic with a family-based approach to end-of-life care. The result was a home hospice during the first lockdown. Suspended within the chaos of medication and treatments were dance parties, episodes of Tiger King, and his father’s many deadpan jokes.
Leaning into his journalistic intuitions, Mitchell interviewed his father daily, making audio recordings of final talks, emotional goodbyes, and the unexpected laughter that filled his father’s final days. Serving as a catalyst for fatherly affection, these interviews became an opportunity for emotional confession during the slowed-down time of a shuttered world, and reflect how far a family went in making a dying loved one feel safe at home.
In April 2020, journalist Mitchell Consky received bad news: his father was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer, with less than two months to live. Suddenly, he and his extended family — many of them healthcare workers — were tasked with reconciling the social distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic with a family-based approach to end-of-life care. The result was a home hospice during the first lockdown. Suspended within the chaos of medication and treatments were dance parties, episodes of Tiger King, and his father’s many deadpan jokes.
Leaning into his journalistic intuitions, Mitchell interviewed his father daily, making audio recordings of final talks, emotional goodbyes, and the unexpected laughter that filled his father’s final days. Serving as a catalyst for fatherly affection, these interviews became an opportunity for emotional confession during the slowed-down time of a shuttered world, and reflect how far a family went in making a dying loved one feel safe at home.
- GenresNonfiction
176 pages, ebook
Published November 1, 2022
2 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 15, 2022
Home Safe will have you laughing, crying and feeling just about every emotion in between. Consky’s story is not sugar-coated. It is raw, genuine and pure human. This story is about so much more than loss and grieving. It is about being present, appreciating the little things, and never limiting a person’s life to just their memory; it is about the understanding that you can carry on a person’s legacy just by being.
November 5, 2022
This small book much like the Tardis is bigger on the inside. Thank you to Dundurn Press for the advanced copy and thank you to the author for sharing your story.
December 21, 2022
Amazing book, well written and put life in perspective. Every day is a privilege!
November 25, 2022
This memoir was a bit out of character for me; but, I’ve been reading quite a few memoirs this year and this one caused me to pause. Is it too soon to read about Covid-19? We’re not quite past it yet, are we? Given that Covid-19 remains looming in so many places and may very well make a comeback, I figured it might help my own healing to read about someone else’s pandemic experience. Admittedly, mine was mild, privileged, and uneventful in comparison to so many millions of others on this planet. What did others feel? How did others live through this? We talked amongst each other, but too often we said a lot of nothing to avoid the anxiety that a deeper, more nuanced conversation could too easily trigger.
From a historian’s perspective, memoirs like this — indeed, the millions of posts, tweets, blog posts, articles, stuff — that we produced in the past few years say something poignant about this strange and traumatic moment in our individual and collective lives. What was this moment in our history? Memoirs give us entrée into others’ internal lives, see how others experienced this.
Consky’s account of the past couple of years, encompassing the dying and death of his father and others, delivered on both points. What was living and dying in the pandemic like?
But readers should not expect a litany of statistics or a step-by-step replay of WHO’s or the American CDC’s decisions and policies. This is a memoir, a deeply personal and individualized account of a global experience. Death is always subjective, always individual, always very personal. Readers should not expect this book to discuss everyone’s experience of Covid-19. The deaths in this book are not coronavirus related deaths necessarily; this book is about the non-pandemic deaths that occurred during the past two years. Ordinary life and ordinary death did not pause for the pandemic. Pandemic deaths eclipsed the distress of other kinds of deaths, but only insofar as their appearance in the news, social media, public forums. The trauma of those passings remained, but was invisible in contrast.
That said, this book is about life too. It is about resilience and the ways in which we communicate those important things in life that need to be said and done before death makes it impossible to do so. This memoir is about memory, not only Consky’s but those of his father’s and the surviving friends and family of those who lost loved ones — during the pandemic and at other times too. Life and death during the pandemic of 2020-2022 was unique in our lifetimes, but also… not. Life and death was also familiar… too familiar? Scarily familiar. Comfortingly familiar. I cannot decide. Neither can Consky, I think.
This book is also about memorializing and the ways in which we do this, for ourselves and for the dead. One act struck me in particular: when a group of friends gathered their memories of another among them who had passed away and gave the resultant artifact to the deceased’s family. This book is about how we can commune over death, that common event, that inevitable process that erases (or should) differences and animosities among us.
The end of life care Consky refers to? I think he means us, the surviving family members and friends of the ones who have passed away. For that reason, the book transcends the pandemic. The pandemic is (was?) a great thing, a momentous thing, but life and death will go on with or without it.
From a historian’s perspective, memoirs like this — indeed, the millions of posts, tweets, blog posts, articles, stuff — that we produced in the past few years say something poignant about this strange and traumatic moment in our individual and collective lives. What was this moment in our history? Memoirs give us entrée into others’ internal lives, see how others experienced this.
Consky’s account of the past couple of years, encompassing the dying and death of his father and others, delivered on both points. What was living and dying in the pandemic like?
But readers should not expect a litany of statistics or a step-by-step replay of WHO’s or the American CDC’s decisions and policies. This is a memoir, a deeply personal and individualized account of a global experience. Death is always subjective, always individual, always very personal. Readers should not expect this book to discuss everyone’s experience of Covid-19. The deaths in this book are not coronavirus related deaths necessarily; this book is about the non-pandemic deaths that occurred during the past two years. Ordinary life and ordinary death did not pause for the pandemic. Pandemic deaths eclipsed the distress of other kinds of deaths, but only insofar as their appearance in the news, social media, public forums. The trauma of those passings remained, but was invisible in contrast.
That said, this book is about life too. It is about resilience and the ways in which we communicate those important things in life that need to be said and done before death makes it impossible to do so. This memoir is about memory, not only Consky’s but those of his father’s and the surviving friends and family of those who lost loved ones — during the pandemic and at other times too. Life and death during the pandemic of 2020-2022 was unique in our lifetimes, but also… not. Life and death was also familiar… too familiar? Scarily familiar. Comfortingly familiar. I cannot decide. Neither can Consky, I think.
This book is also about memorializing and the ways in which we do this, for ourselves and for the dead. One act struck me in particular: when a group of friends gathered their memories of another among them who had passed away and gave the resultant artifact to the deceased’s family. This book is about how we can commune over death, that common event, that inevitable process that erases (or should) differences and animosities among us.
The end of life care Consky refers to? I think he means us, the surviving family members and friends of the ones who have passed away. For that reason, the book transcends the pandemic. The pandemic is (was?) a great thing, a momentous thing, but life and death will go on with or without it.
April 3, 2023
If you are going to read "Home Safe" a stunningly beautiful memoir by Mitchell Consky, be sure to have a box of tissues handy.
Mitchell is a journalist. He is also a son...a loving son who has written about the pain of learning that his father has received a life-changing, rare, medical diagnosis, with barely two months left to live. He is a loving son who has come home to be with his family, to help see his father through his final weeks.
It is the early days of the pandemic. Life is precarious for everyone; it is worse for those with medical issues who need medical attention.
And Mitchell, his mother and sister and several extended family members who work in the medical field become Harvey Consky's advocates and guardians, caregivers and entertainers. They try to strengthen Harvey's resolve by trying to strengthen their own, even while recognizing the inevitable.
Mitchell interviews his father daily, recording their conversations, sharing videos and photos and monumental events from the past. He captures his father's present, his father's past, and a future without his father in it, all while getting life lessons and stories from his father as well as an abundance of love -- and giving them right back to him!
Mitchell allows the narrative to sometimes weave into the past, writing about recalled incidents, whether from his POV or from that of the other players in the story. Doing so helps the reader truly understand what family members are going through or have gone through to reach this point.
The shocking diagnosis came in April 2020. In early May 2020, Mitchell wrote an essay that was featured in the Globe & Mail's "First Person" section; that is how I first learned about his father's illness. The essay was so moving, and I kept a copy of it.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/.../a...
A month later, I happened to spot the obituary for Harvey Consky.
This man had just two months to let it all sink in that his life on earth was ending. His family had only two months to do the same, and to try to make him as comfortable as possible. Mitchell, in his wisdom and with his masterful journalistic tendencies, was able to capture his father, himself and his family as they took this final journey together...whether it be while laughing, crying, dancing, watching movies, reminiscing, medicating or simply....being.
Harvey Consky was my backyard neighbor. May he rest in everlasting peace.
Mitchell is a journalist. He is also a son...a loving son who has written about the pain of learning that his father has received a life-changing, rare, medical diagnosis, with barely two months left to live. He is a loving son who has come home to be with his family, to help see his father through his final weeks.
It is the early days of the pandemic. Life is precarious for everyone; it is worse for those with medical issues who need medical attention.
And Mitchell, his mother and sister and several extended family members who work in the medical field become Harvey Consky's advocates and guardians, caregivers and entertainers. They try to strengthen Harvey's resolve by trying to strengthen their own, even while recognizing the inevitable.
Mitchell interviews his father daily, recording their conversations, sharing videos and photos and monumental events from the past. He captures his father's present, his father's past, and a future without his father in it, all while getting life lessons and stories from his father as well as an abundance of love -- and giving them right back to him!
Mitchell allows the narrative to sometimes weave into the past, writing about recalled incidents, whether from his POV or from that of the other players in the story. Doing so helps the reader truly understand what family members are going through or have gone through to reach this point.
The shocking diagnosis came in April 2020. In early May 2020, Mitchell wrote an essay that was featured in the Globe & Mail's "First Person" section; that is how I first learned about his father's illness. The essay was so moving, and I kept a copy of it.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/.../a...
A month later, I happened to spot the obituary for Harvey Consky.
This man had just two months to let it all sink in that his life on earth was ending. His family had only two months to do the same, and to try to make him as comfortable as possible. Mitchell, in his wisdom and with his masterful journalistic tendencies, was able to capture his father, himself and his family as they took this final journey together...whether it be while laughing, crying, dancing, watching movies, reminiscing, medicating or simply....being.
Harvey Consky was my backyard neighbor. May he rest in everlasting peace.
February 26, 2023
What a beautiful gem of a book. A story about love - not the schmaltzy, Hallmark kind generally marketed to us, but the deep, abiding love of a son, Mitchell Consky, for his father. In ‘Home Safe’, the reader gets to meet the Consky family in all its warm-hearted, goofy glory, with Harvey, the wise-cracking father at its beating heart. Whether he’s Shakira dancing, James Bond enacting, or fart singing, thanks to Mitchell’s lyrical and humorous account, Harvey leaps off the page and lodges vividly in the imagination.
Determined that his father should have the chance to talk about his meaningful experience of life as he neared the end of it, Mitchell asked him the big questions that most of us tend to avoid in our day-to-day existence. What does it mean to have a life well lived? Do you believe in God? (What is your favourite colour? is used as a warm-up question). The result of these gentle interviews is a luminous, profound, funny, nakedly honest account of those moments that collectively make up a life. Harvey’s - and the book’s conclusion - that despite pain, loss, and sorrow, love can be transmitted through the generations, is a buoyant and welcome message that can speak to us all.
Mitchell is a natural and gifted writer - the words spill from him with an elegant assurance that is a joy and a privilege to experience. My money is on the fact that he - still only 27, with this his first book - has a huge literary career ahead of him. Perhaps this will be as a novelist as well as a journalist, given his ability to effortlessly insert himself into the thoughts, dreams, and aspirations of his engaging and comical family. I urge you to read this book; in our fractured and Twitter-ranting world, it’s a tonic.
Determined that his father should have the chance to talk about his meaningful experience of life as he neared the end of it, Mitchell asked him the big questions that most of us tend to avoid in our day-to-day existence. What does it mean to have a life well lived? Do you believe in God? (What is your favourite colour? is used as a warm-up question). The result of these gentle interviews is a luminous, profound, funny, nakedly honest account of those moments that collectively make up a life. Harvey’s - and the book’s conclusion - that despite pain, loss, and sorrow, love can be transmitted through the generations, is a buoyant and welcome message that can speak to us all.
Mitchell is a natural and gifted writer - the words spill from him with an elegant assurance that is a joy and a privilege to experience. My money is on the fact that he - still only 27, with this his first book - has a huge literary career ahead of him. Perhaps this will be as a novelist as well as a journalist, given his ability to effortlessly insert himself into the thoughts, dreams, and aspirations of his engaging and comical family. I urge you to read this book; in our fractured and Twitter-ranting world, it’s a tonic.
August 1, 2023
Home Safe by Mitch Consky is a moving account of the death of a good man, the love of a son for his father and how an extended family comes together to provide end-of-life care during Covid-19. A short read at 191 pages, the journey of 67 year old Harvey Consky from his initial diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer and his death is also frighteningly brief – a matter of a few months rather than years.
This should be a hard book to read. A terminal illness during a pandemic is hardly laugh track material. But Consky’s book is more than the depiction of the ravages of cancer, rather a very joyful and funny celebration of a life. A dad who waits at the top of a staircase to make sure his son is home safe, a dad who mimics favourite lines from a James Bond movie, who responds to “I love you” with “I love you more, and don’t argue”.
Mitch’s father’s innate positivity breaks through in his insistence that he is a lucky man - true enough despite having experienced the loss of his mother at the age of 14, of his father seven years later. Surrounded by a family that includes a neurologist, emergency care doctors, social worker (his wife), dietician was a blessing for him during Covid-19.
This is a man who creates his own luck by living a life of love, devotion, commitment, responsibility, and above all humour and laughter. Saying goodbye to such a man is the special agony of the living.
Reading about him is an emotional rollercoaster ride for any reader. If mortality is the tie that binds all of us, then the life and death of this one man breaks open our hearts to memories of our own losses and the contemplation of our death.
May we all be as ‘lucky’ as Harvey Consky, transmitting a legacy of love to future generations.
This should be a hard book to read. A terminal illness during a pandemic is hardly laugh track material. But Consky’s book is more than the depiction of the ravages of cancer, rather a very joyful and funny celebration of a life. A dad who waits at the top of a staircase to make sure his son is home safe, a dad who mimics favourite lines from a James Bond movie, who responds to “I love you” with “I love you more, and don’t argue”.
Mitch’s father’s innate positivity breaks through in his insistence that he is a lucky man - true enough despite having experienced the loss of his mother at the age of 14, of his father seven years later. Surrounded by a family that includes a neurologist, emergency care doctors, social worker (his wife), dietician was a blessing for him during Covid-19.
This is a man who creates his own luck by living a life of love, devotion, commitment, responsibility, and above all humour and laughter. Saying goodbye to such a man is the special agony of the living.
Reading about him is an emotional rollercoaster ride for any reader. If mortality is the tie that binds all of us, then the life and death of this one man breaks open our hearts to memories of our own losses and the contemplation of our death.
May we all be as ‘lucky’ as Harvey Consky, transmitting a legacy of love to future generations.
May 30, 2023
Finding out your father has cancer is one of the most horrible nightmares you can live through. Knowing that you can't do much to help with what they are going through is very traumatic.
This is the true story of Mitchell Consky and what he and his family had to endure during Covid lockdown and trying to find peace during the worst moments in life.
The candid take on cancer treatments as well as the suffering of the family is a refreshing change of pace from the more morbid after effects of cancer on the family. I think it shows a more positive outlook which is great since it was making the best of a bad situation.
The writing style of this memoir was very fluid which I would expect nothing less of a journalist as highly trained as Mitchell Consky.
The depiction of his father as showing humour throughout the treatments and how the family all rallied around him despite not being able to physically be with him.
The book is decidedly optimistic showing the love that the family has for the father and how even though he is no longer with them that they still can have joy in their lives.
I can't say that the book was great as the content was very sad and had tears in my eyes a number of times. What it was well extremely well written showing a side of cancer and end of life that can be seen as uplifting as well as sad.
I had the honour of meeting the author at the Toronto Book Festival on May 27th and was able to hear him speak a bit about his book. It was great to hear him talking about his book with others as well as myself. The talk was short but it made me want to read the book even more after hearing him speak.
This is the true story of Mitchell Consky and what he and his family had to endure during Covid lockdown and trying to find peace during the worst moments in life.
The candid take on cancer treatments as well as the suffering of the family is a refreshing change of pace from the more morbid after effects of cancer on the family. I think it shows a more positive outlook which is great since it was making the best of a bad situation.
The writing style of this memoir was very fluid which I would expect nothing less of a journalist as highly trained as Mitchell Consky.
The depiction of his father as showing humour throughout the treatments and how the family all rallied around him despite not being able to physically be with him.
The book is decidedly optimistic showing the love that the family has for the father and how even though he is no longer with them that they still can have joy in their lives.
I can't say that the book was great as the content was very sad and had tears in my eyes a number of times. What it was well extremely well written showing a side of cancer and end of life that can be seen as uplifting as well as sad.
I had the honour of meeting the author at the Toronto Book Festival on May 27th and was able to hear him speak a bit about his book. It was great to hear him talking about his book with others as well as myself. The talk was short but it made me want to read the book even more after hearing him speak.
November 25, 2022
This memoir was a bit out of character for me; but, I’ve been reading quite a few memoirs this year and this one caused me to pause. Is it too soon to read about Covid-19? We’re not quite past it yet, are we? Given that Covid-19 remains looming in so many places and may very well make a comeback, I figured it might help my own healing to read about someone else’s pandemic experience. Admittedly, mine was mild, privileged, and uneventful in comparison to so many millions of others on this planet. What did others feel? How did others live through this? We talked amongst each other, but too often we said a lot of nothing to avoid the anxiety that a deeper, more nuanced conversation could too easily trigger.
From a historian’s perspective, memoirs like this — indeed, the millions of posts, tweets, blog posts, articles, stuff — that we produced in the past few years say something poignant about this strange and traumatic moment in our individual and collective lives. What was this moment in our history? Memoirs give us entrée into others’ internal lives, see how others experienced this.
Consky’s account of the past couple of years, encompassing the dying and death of his father and others, delivered on both points. What was living and dying in the pandemic like?
But readers should not expect a litany of statistics or a step-by-step replay of WHO’s or the American CDC’s decisions and policies. This is a memoir, a deeply personal and individualized account of a global experience. Death is always subjective, always individual, always very personal. Readers should not expect this book to discuss everyone’s experience of Covid-19. The deaths in this book are not coronavirus related deaths necessarily; this book is about the non-pandemic deaths that occurred during the past two years. Ordinary life and ordinary death did not pause for the pandemic. Pandemic deaths eclipsed the distress of other kinds of deaths, but only insofar as their appearance in the news, social media, public forums. The trauma of those passings remained, but was invisible in contrast.
That said, this book is about life too. It is about resilience and the ways in which we communicate those important things in life that need to be said and done before death makes it impossible to do so. This memoir is about memory, not only Consky’s but those of his father’s and the surviving friends and family of those who lost loved ones — during the pandemic and at other times too. Life and death during the pandemic of 2020-2022 was unique in our lifetimes, but also… not. Life and death was also familiar… too familiar? Scarily familiar. Comfortingly familiar. I cannot decide. Neither can Consky, I think.
This book is also about memorializing and the ways in which we do this, for ourselves and for the dead. One act struck me in particular: when a group of friends gathered their memories of another among them who had passed away and gave the resultant artifact to the deceased’s family. This book is about how we can commune over death, that common event, that inevitable process that erases (or should) differences and animosities among us.
The end of life care Consky refers to? I think he means us, the surviving family members and friends of the ones who have passed away. For that reason, the book transcends the pandemic. The pandemic is (was?) a great thing, a momentous thing, but life and death will go on with or without it.
From a historian’s perspective, memoirs like this — indeed, the millions of posts, tweets, blog posts, articles, stuff — that we produced in the past few years say something poignant about this strange and traumatic moment in our individual and collective lives. What was this moment in our history? Memoirs give us entrée into others’ internal lives, see how others experienced this.
Consky’s account of the past couple of years, encompassing the dying and death of his father and others, delivered on both points. What was living and dying in the pandemic like?
But readers should not expect a litany of statistics or a step-by-step replay of WHO’s or the American CDC’s decisions and policies. This is a memoir, a deeply personal and individualized account of a global experience. Death is always subjective, always individual, always very personal. Readers should not expect this book to discuss everyone’s experience of Covid-19. The deaths in this book are not coronavirus related deaths necessarily; this book is about the non-pandemic deaths that occurred during the past two years. Ordinary life and ordinary death did not pause for the pandemic. Pandemic deaths eclipsed the distress of other kinds of deaths, but only insofar as their appearance in the news, social media, public forums. The trauma of those passings remained, but was invisible in contrast.
That said, this book is about life too. It is about resilience and the ways in which we communicate those important things in life that need to be said and done before death makes it impossible to do so. This memoir is about memory, not only Consky’s but those of his father’s and the surviving friends and family of those who lost loved ones — during the pandemic and at other times too. Life and death during the pandemic of 2020-2022 was unique in our lifetimes, but also… not. Life and death was also familiar… too familiar? Scarily familiar. Comfortingly familiar. I cannot decide. Neither can Consky, I think.
This book is also about memorializing and the ways in which we do this, for ourselves and for the dead. One act struck me in particular: when a group of friends gathered their memories of another among them who had passed away and gave the resultant artifact to the deceased’s family. This book is about how we can commune over death, that common event, that inevitable process that erases (or should) differences and animosities among us.
The end of life care Consky refers to? I think he means us, the surviving family members and friends of the ones who have passed away. For that reason, the book transcends the pandemic. The pandemic is (was?) a great thing, a momentous thing, but life and death will go on with or without it.
January 26, 2023
Thank you so much to @dundurnpress for the complimentary copy of Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19. Home Safe came out on November 1, 2022 – available now.
This book was incredible and I'm shocked I haven't seen it posted about more.
I'll be honest - I didn’t know what I was getting into when I picked this book up. It is an incredibly personal account of how the author and his family lived through the first few months of the pandemic as his father was diagnosed and passed from a rare, fast acting cancer.
As soon as I started this book, I was unable to put it down. I’ve heard some people wanting to stay away from books that are so closely connected to life in 2020, but personally I appreciate getting to know how different people were impacted in different ways during those early months.
Consky talks about interviewing his father every day, looking for more details of his life to be able to cherish and revisit for years going forward.
I was also surprised around page 70 to learn the author and his family are Jewish, and appreciated the stories included that I could connect with culturally.
I encourage everyone pick this book up, it’s a heartbreaking and beautiful memoir, full of heart and family. It’s one of those books I’ll remember for a long time and wish I could read for the first time all over again.
This book was incredible and I'm shocked I haven't seen it posted about more.
I'll be honest - I didn’t know what I was getting into when I picked this book up. It is an incredibly personal account of how the author and his family lived through the first few months of the pandemic as his father was diagnosed and passed from a rare, fast acting cancer.
As soon as I started this book, I was unable to put it down. I’ve heard some people wanting to stay away from books that are so closely connected to life in 2020, but personally I appreciate getting to know how different people were impacted in different ways during those early months.
Consky talks about interviewing his father every day, looking for more details of his life to be able to cherish and revisit for years going forward.
I was also surprised around page 70 to learn the author and his family are Jewish, and appreciated the stories included that I could connect with culturally.
I encourage everyone pick this book up, it’s a heartbreaking and beautiful memoir, full of heart and family. It’s one of those books I’ll remember for a long time and wish I could read for the first time all over again.
September 12, 2022
Set against the backdrop of the covid pandemic and the rules and regulations that we all abided by, this book allows the reader into the most personal journey. While his family of frontline workers come together with their knowledge, what lies at the centre is a father, a husband and much loved family member who is suffering from cancer.
Our author gifts you something special. A father with an unwavering love for his son and that son determined to ensure that his end of life care is everything it should be. Mitchell has to learn to let his father go. Fathers and heroes and warriors and best friends to sons. As a child you think your father is invincible, but home safe is about realising that this is not the case.
To our author: thank you for this beauty. Written so well and as a nurse of 30 years I could relate to it. As a widow of 3 years, I could relate to your mum, and as someone who lost her mum to lung cancer 18 months ago, I was walking your path.
Our author gifts you something special. A father with an unwavering love for his son and that son determined to ensure that his end of life care is everything it should be. Mitchell has to learn to let his father go. Fathers and heroes and warriors and best friends to sons. As a child you think your father is invincible, but home safe is about realising that this is not the case.
To our author: thank you for this beauty. Written so well and as a nurse of 30 years I could relate to it. As a widow of 3 years, I could relate to your mum, and as someone who lost her mum to lung cancer 18 months ago, I was walking your path.
December 2, 2022
Home Safe is an amazing book demonstrating the dynamics of a very close, loving family
during a very difficult time.
I felt mixed emotions while reading; crying and laughing throughout the book.
On a personal note, Mitchell's mother Arlene has been a good, close friend of mine for many years.
What the Consky family had to endure was truly heartbreaking, especially during the time of
a major pandemic.
This book illustrates the strength, courage and determination that they had to ensure that
Harvey was surrounded by love, laughter and a sense of being safe at home.
Mitchell is a very gifted and poignant writer.
I feel so proud and happy for him and Arlene, and I wish him all the success with his
first published novel.
during a very difficult time.
I felt mixed emotions while reading; crying and laughing throughout the book.
On a personal note, Mitchell's mother Arlene has been a good, close friend of mine for many years.
What the Consky family had to endure was truly heartbreaking, especially during the time of
a major pandemic.
This book illustrates the strength, courage and determination that they had to ensure that
Harvey was surrounded by love, laughter and a sense of being safe at home.
Mitchell is a very gifted and poignant writer.
I feel so proud and happy for him and Arlene, and I wish him all the success with his
first published novel.
January 7, 2023
I just finished Mitchell Consky's book "Home Safe" and I found it truly a wonderful book! I enjoyed every page. I loved how it moved forwards and backwards in time, bringing together important moments in their lives. It shows in a most touching and beautiful way the relationship between the author and his father and how their father meant the world to all of them. It is a moving and artfully written book with deep meaning about love, loss and the transmission of love and holds common truths that are for all of us. "Home Safe" is a book that should be read by everyone. It shows us the magic of family that sometimes we lose touch with and reminds us to never take it for granted. A must have in everyone's bookshelf!!!
April 22, 2023
Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for accepting my request to read and review Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19.
Published: 11/29/22
Respectfully, this is a 3.5 star read. I like that it was not complicated with medical terms and tests. The author's father becomes noticeably thin and is diagnosed with stage IV cancer at the time when Covid restrictions were high. The dynamics of ER visits, home health, inpatient visitors, and picking up groceries and medications all come into play.
I found this to be refreshing in that they didn't fight as a family. They worked together. I wonder if Covid brought the best out of them as individuals. The book is straightforward, not overly written.
Published: 11/29/22
Respectfully, this is a 3.5 star read. I like that it was not complicated with medical terms and tests. The author's father becomes noticeably thin and is diagnosed with stage IV cancer at the time when Covid restrictions were high. The dynamics of ER visits, home health, inpatient visitors, and picking up groceries and medications all come into play.
I found this to be refreshing in that they didn't fight as a family. They worked together. I wonder if Covid brought the best out of them as individuals. The book is straightforward, not overly written.
November 26, 2022
Consky beautifully explores the concept of end-of-life care as he shares the story of his own father and his family's experience with suffering and loss during the pandemic. I loved how Consky tells the story from so many different perspectives - shedding light on the different emotions and challenges each person faces when someone close to them is ill. This story follows Consky's family as they each take on the role of a caregiver in order to provide the best at-home care for their beloved family member, Consky's dad. Their family's perseverance and dedication to caring for Harvey, and their bravery in sharing their story through this book, is truly inspirational.
This special story about a family coming together to support the one they love conveys important lessons about finding meaning in dark times, what it means to be compassionate, and the value of family. Consky shows that even when someone's days are numbered, happiness and laughter can still be found in the small moments that make life worth living.
This special story about a family coming together to support the one they love conveys important lessons about finding meaning in dark times, what it means to be compassionate, and the value of family. Consky shows that even when someone's days are numbered, happiness and laughter can still be found in the small moments that make life worth living.
December 31, 2022
I couldn't put this book down; it had me both laughing and crying into the late hours of the night. Consky's writing is accessible and his vulnerability in depicting his experience will reel you in. Through the many anecdotes in this book, Consky captures the essence of the extremely special man and father that it seems Harvey was, in a way that is somehow also relatable to anyone who has felt deep and unconditional parental love. We the readers can simultaneously admire Consky's relationship with his father while also being grateful for the relationships in our lives that resemble it. Consky - you should be very proud of this accomplishment!
August 30, 2023
I felt privileged to read about the private times that Mitchell and his family went through and enjoyed the incorporation of past and present stories. The simplicity of the writing and wisdom provided by Harvey made it all feel more relatable. I loved the piece at the end where Harvey shares about the transmission of love, how it’s immortal, and gets passed from person to person.
I also found myself reflecting on the early pandemic days, which were already filled with so much fear and uncertainty; I can’t imagine how Harvey and his family must have felt receiving this life changing diagnosis at that time.
I also found myself reflecting on the early pandemic days, which were already filled with so much fear and uncertainty; I can’t imagine how Harvey and his family must have felt receiving this life changing diagnosis at that time.
November 26, 2022
A beautiful and worthwhile read that offers a heartfelt tribute to a father, a family and things in life that can both shake us and ground us. Mitchell Consky does a skilful job in plucking out the most poignant and intimate of moments and describing them in ways that bring you right there. The challenges of the pandemic is one layer to the many difficult layers of his grief and loss. He covers them with all with humour, grace and self-reflection. HIs father would be immensely proud! Have a tissue box handy...
November 27, 2022
Thank you to the author, Dundurn Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This beautifully written memoir tells the story of a father, son and family coping with a devastating diagnosis, and the decisions that had to made as a result. This all happens during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, which of course upends conventional planning for therapy and care. Yes, it's sad - but it's also funny, personal, emotional and shows the power of love and resilience. Highly recommend!
This beautifully written memoir tells the story of a father, son and family coping with a devastating diagnosis, and the decisions that had to made as a result. This all happens during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, which of course upends conventional planning for therapy and care. Yes, it's sad - but it's also funny, personal, emotional and shows the power of love and resilience. Highly recommend!
July 15, 2022
Home Safe is beautifully written, it tells a sad story that so genuinely captures the uniqueness of the Covid-19 pandemic. The book will make you laugh, cry, and feel such a range of emotions you can only be grateful for the raw reminder of just how human the rollercoaster of life is. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is open to being reminded of just how much there is to be grateful for in this life.
July 16, 2022
Home Safe's powerful anecdotes, touching storylines and sense of humour make for a truly inspirational read.
The deep bond shown between father, son and family explores the fragility and beauty of life. The time spent with the Consky family in Home Safe takes you through peaks and valleys of caring for a loved one, and is sure to make you feel every emotion.
If you want a genuine story that touches your heart, this is the book for you.
The deep bond shown between father, son and family explores the fragility and beauty of life. The time spent with the Consky family in Home Safe takes you through peaks and valleys of caring for a loved one, and is sure to make you feel every emotion.
If you want a genuine story that touches your heart, this is the book for you.
September 5, 2022
Thank you for the advanced copy. What a truly amazing book this is. COVID has touched many, we have lost people we know, love and care for and for some life will never be the same again. This book is beautiful in that its focus on his father and end of life care (something of which I am very passionate about) is amazing especially during COVID when everything just became so much harder. A loving family and a the father as their focus.
Highly recommended
Highly recommended
September 27, 2022
Home Safe is so compelling and wonderfully written that I couldn’t put it down. Consky paints a vivid picture of his family’s love and resilience in the face of a devastating diagnosis during the early days of the COVID pandemic. This book takes you on an emotional journey, reminding you of the fragility of life and the beauty in the small things we often take for granted. Highly recommend this book.
December 14, 2022
Home Safe is a beautiful memoir detailing a son’s journey with his father’s terminal cancer diagnosis. The author, Mitchell Consky, recounts how his tight-knit family comes together to provide his father with love, support, and meaning during his final days. Consky skillfully tells the story through a collection of intimate family stories, charming anecdotes, and touching final goodbyes. The book is fantastic, and I highly recommend reading.
October 26, 2025
This book read like a creative writing assignment from a high-schooler: overly descriptive, redundant, and with philosophically trite conclusions. It’s clear the author and his family have a lot of love and tenderness for one another, and that the author carefully memorialized the intensity of emotion during the family’s final months all together. It’s certainly a moving book but it felt like reading someone’s diary instead of their thoughtfully edited memoir.
December 30, 2022
What a genuine, wholesomely written read. Mitch’s book is simultaneously filled with emotion and laughters, and with his aptitude for storytelling, you truly get a front seat to the honest, hard to swallow, messy and rarely shared reality of terminal illness. I read this in one sitting. Thank you Consky for sharing your resilience and vulnerability with us <3
October 23, 2023
As someone who also lost their father in their early 20s, this book perfectly captured the whirlwind of emotions one goes through while preparing for your parent's death. I smiled, I cried (heavily) and overall couldn't be more proud of how Mitchell was able to put his experience on paper. This book is for anyone with a heart. Anyone who wants to feel something. This is the book for you. 10/10
November 16, 2022
Home Safe is one the most beautiful books I've read. Consky shares this powerful story of love, loss and resilience in such an insightful way. He reminds us that joy and laughter can be found in even the darkest moments and how important it is to be grateful. I laughed, I cried and couldn't put it down.
November 17, 2022
Home Safe will make you laugh and cry. This book focusses on the father/son bond & the end of life home care during the early days of the Covid pandemic. But it is much more than that. Beautifully written & difficult to put down. Thank you Mitchell for sharing your story.
February 12, 2023
Enjoyed this book from beginning to end. There were so many elements, from the personal story of his family, to the major impact of the pandemic. How his family dealt with everything was truly inspiring! I will definitely will recommending this book to everyone.
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