Whose Death Is It, Anyway?: A Hospice Nurse Remembers (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781938517310)

Sharon White has retired from a lifelong career as a registered nurse, spending forty years providing care and support to patients and their families. Her first exposure to death was when she was sent by an instructor in her first week of nursing school to the Los Angeles County General Hospital Morgue to complete an assignment on a man she had given care to the day before. As she stood in front of the huge cooler, the attendant pulled shrouded bodies, tray after tray, until the name of her patient appeared on the toe tag. The very next day she had a moderately ill woman as a patient who told her she would die at two o'clock that afternoon, and indeed she died right at the predicted time. These two moments brought her very close to her own mortality, and she continued dealing with the mystery of death throughout her career. She became at ease with death and dying throughout her career, spending the last ten years of her career working with families and dying patients in their homes. She found people in the throes of the dying process to be great teachers and decided to journal about each death. Sharon lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband Bruce, dog Ginger and cat Patches. She revels in the green of nature where she renews her spirit. Contact: sharinjoy2003@hotmail.com