BY LAMA PAT BERUBE
Many years ago,
In the ’70’s while living and working in New York, I attended a presentation by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her highly acclaimed book,
On Death and Dying,
had been published a few years earlier and I was excited to hear her speak about her work. After a short talk, she showed a film of her conversation with a man dying of cancer. Her sensitivity and compassion was very moving.
After this heart-opening experience, I reflected on the dramatic change in the dying man’s demeanor. Initially he appeared depressed and withdrawn. After the interview his appearance was soft, relaxed and open. Yet, what was most memorable for me was the sharp contrast between this beautiful exchange and the number of people who tearfully and hurriedly left the auditorium during her presentation.
Published 50 years ago,
Kübler-Ross' book,
On Death and Dying,
featured conversations with the dying, sharing their hopes and fears as they faced the end of their lives. At that time, no one in the medical community was giving a voice to people facing death. Her book and work is credited with giving rise to the hospice movement and the new specialties of palliative care, as well as opening up advances in geriatrics, psychology, clinical ethics, pain specialists and more. Her groundbreaking work opened up new fields for supporting end of life care and meeting the various needs of the seriously ill.
