NEW
YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Passionate advocate for end-of-life care
and TikTok star Hadley Vlahos shares moving stories of joy, wisdom,
and redemption from her patients’ final moments in this “brilliant”
(Zibby Owens, Good Morning America) memoir.
“This
extraordinary book helps dispel fear around death and dying—revealing
it to be a natural part of our soul’s evolution.”—Laura Lynne
Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Signs
and The
Light Between Us
Talking
about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even
in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at best:
Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our
thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most
people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness,
good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing
attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who
shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to
live as it does about how we die.
Vlahos
was raised in a strict religious household, but began questioning her
beliefs in high school after the sudden death of a friend. When she
got pregnant at nineteen, she was shunned by her community and
enrolled herself in nursing school to be able to support herself and
her baby. But nursing soon became more than a job: when she focused
on palliative care and hospice work, it became a calling.
In
The In-Between,
Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the
people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned
her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing
visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that
she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others
thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey.
Written
with profound insight, humility, and respect, The
In-Between
is a heartrending memoir that shows how caring for others can
transform a life while also offering wisdom and comfort for those
dealing with loss and providing inspiration for how to live now.