Choices: When Your Child is Dying

Cynthia Whissell is a psychology professor at Laurentian University.

The effect that a book has on its readers depends on each reader’s
status at the time of reading. Readers who have not recently experienced
a death in the family may find Choices a very difficult, almost a
threatening, book to read. Those who have experienced a death will
likely find the book’s peaceful tone and forward-looking approach
comforting. Because it is based on parents’ stories of their
experiences with dying children, this book has a directness that is
lacking in many other treatments of a family’s reactions to death. Lee
herself speaks from experience, as the bereaved mother of two dead
children. Practical advice is provided, and useful addresses (such as
for home-care equipment) are included at the end of the book. What’s
missing in this book is the importance of faith. Religious faith could
make an enormous difference in parents’ ability to cope with a
child’s death, and it deserves a more central role in this book.