RECOMMENDATIONS
HG Foundation provides resources to explore, understand, accept, and prepare for end of life. We offer a variety of options, knowing viewers enjoy choices and not everything appeals to everyone. We welcome your feedback or suggestions through our contact form. Clicking on book covers provides a synopsis; clicking on links for podcasts, films, or TED Talks will take you away from HG Foundation’s website.
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Former NEA fellow and Pushcart Prize-winning writer Sallie Tisdale offers a lyrical, thought-provoking, yet practical perspective on death and dying in Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them). Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable
The Art of Dying – written by the New York Times bestselling author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door – is a reassuring and thoroughly researched guide to maintaining a high quality of life—from resilient old age to the first inklings of a serious illness to the final breath.
“She wanted something in between, just enough time to put her affairs in order and get a few things off her chest. She got her wish. Not everyone gets theirs.”
When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable—especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, “NO!” with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear—and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should.
The first ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying—and living fully until you do.
Being Mortal was named Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and the Chicago Tribune.
Dr. Ira Byock, a doctor on the front lines of hospital care, illuminates the most important and controversial social issues of our time in The Best Care Possible.
Blending personal insights from twenty-five years of hospice volunteering with contemplative social science research, Contemplative Caregiving offers practical lessons about the transformative possibilities of compassionate end-of-life caregiving.
Death has a 100 per cent success rate. We can’t escape its inevitability, nor can we deny its existence. So, when someone close to us dies or we are confronted by our own mortality, why are we utterly unprepared?
Ted is Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn’s older brother, best friend, and the “ringmaster of her days.” On a September morning when she is six, she wakes up and Ted is gone. Her parents explain that he went to the hospital for a while. “A while” turns out to be eight years in a plastic bubble, where he dies of a rare autoimmune disease at age seventeen.
For readers of Being Mortal and Modern Death, an ICU and Palliative Care specialist offers a framework for a better way to exit life that will change our medical culture at the deepest level
In this moving and compassionate classic, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill.
The cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and pioneer behind the compassionate care movement shares an inspiring exploration of the lessons dying has to offer about living a fulfilling life.
Four simple phrases— “Please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “Thank you,” and “I love you”—carry enormous power to mend and nurture our relationships and inner lives. These four phrases and the sentiments they convey provide a path to emotional wellbeing, guiding us through interpersonal difficulties to life with integrity and grace.
A poignant and transporting cross-cultural love story set against the lush backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hour.
The Group offers a singular perspective on grief by weaving together the latest thinking on bereavement, resiliency and post-traumatic growth with the true story of seven men who were raising children on their own after the deaths of their wives. The men connected with each almost immediately, and over the next several years forged a deep bond as their monthly meetings evolved into a forum for healing and personal reinvention that transformed them in unexpected ways.
From the host of the popular podcast, Terrible, Thanks for Asking, comes a wise, humorous roadmap and caring resource for anyone going through the loss of a loved one—or even a difficult life moment.
Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime; few are as important as the ones discussing death. Yet few of these conversations are happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner–an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and talk about the one thing we all have in common
In Life After the Diagnosis, Dr. Steven Z. Pantilat, a renowned international expert in palliative care demystifies the medical system for patients and their families. He makes sense of what doctors say, what they actually mean, and how to get the best information to help make the best medical decisions.
Dr. Haider Warraich is a young and brilliant voice in the conversation about death and dying. Dr. Warraich takes a broader look at how we die today, from the cellular level up to the very definition of death itself.
One of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century, On Death and Dying grew out of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kübler-Ross explores the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Through sample interviews and conversations, she gives readers a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve that patient, and the patient’s family, bringing hope to all who are involved.
As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan discovered she’d been granted a powerful chance to witness firsthand what she calls the “spiritual work of dying”—the work of finding or making meaning of one’s life. Instead of talking, she mainly listened to stories of hope and regret, shame and pride, mystery and revelation and secrets held too long. Most of all, though, she listened as her patients talked about love—love for their children and partners and friends; love they didn’t know how to offer; love they gave unconditionally; love they, sometimes belatedly, learned to grant themselves.
From Facebook’s COO and Wharton’s top-rated professor, the #1 New York Times best-selling authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks.
Present Through the End is a go-to resource for everyone supporting someone at the end of life–from the moment we first learn that someone is dying through the time of death and beyond.
A moving memoir and an extraordinary love story that shows how an expert physician became a family caregiver and learned why care is so central to all our lives and yet is at risk in today’s world.
As the American born daughter of immigrants, Dr. Sunita Puri knew from a young age that the gulf between her parents’ experiences and her own was impossible to bridge, save for two elements: medicine and spirituality. Between days spent waiting for her mother, an anesthesiologist, to exit the OR, and evenings spent in conversation with her parents about their faith, Puri witnessed the tension between medicine’s impulse to preserve life at all costs and a spiritual embrace of life’s temporality. And it was that tension that eventually drew Puri, a passionate but unsatisfied medical student, to palliative medicine–a new specialty attempting to translate the border between medical intervention and quality-of-life care.
#1 New York Times Bestseller • Pulitzer Prize Finalist • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, People, NPR, The Washington Post, Slate, Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, and BookPage
Straightforward and compassionate, When Dinosaurs Die explains death, dying, and coping with grief and loss in simple and accessible language for young kids and families.
For readers of Atul Gawande and Paul Kalanithi, a palliative care doctor’s breathtaking stories from 30 years spent caring for the dying.
In the Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience; this book is a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or childLISTEN
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Explore videos, feature or short films, and TED talks.
Featured Films + Movies
Directed and produced by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill (HBO’s Axios), Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America offers a fascinating look at the varied ways Americans are choosing to both find meaning and celebrate life as it comes to an end.
With attitudes about death and end-of-life choices rapidly changing, 2018 was the first time more Americans chose cremation over more expensive, traditional burials, disrupting the $16 billion a year funeral industry. As the baby boomer generation approaches death, more and more people are rethinking the ways end of life is recognized and are deciding to take control of what will happen when they die. Touching and heartfelt, the documentary spotlights a subject some might rather avoid, and presents it in a positive and thought-provoking manner – featuring stories of empowerment instead of avoidance.
Alternate Endings tells six stories of people nearing death and of family members of the recently deceased, who have chosen non-traditional end-of-life options and remembrances, from celebrations of life and living wakes, to green burials, extraterrestrial burials and more. Profoundly intimate and illuminating, the film explores what it means to be near death, either from age or terminal illness, and captures the healing power of honoring, giving thanks, and staying true to loved ones who have passed away.
Leila Johnson traveled to the Gulf of Mexico with her mother and aunt to place her father’s cremated remains in a memorial coral reef, a fitting tribute for a man who loved the ocean. After meeting with the director of Memorial Reef International who explains how the memorials create new habitats for ocean life devastated by dying coral, an emotional Leila mixes her father’s ashes with cement, adding a family photo she says will keep him company. The next morning, the cement reef is dropped in the ocean and Leila scuba dives to the seafloor to say a final goodbye, believing her father’s life has been given added meaning.
Guadalupe Cuevas, in San Antonio, Texas, has terminal cancer and is in renal failure. Guadalupe’s son and daughter, Guadalupe, Jr. and Alicia, are planning a living wake for their father, who says, “I’m going to feel like the luckiest person in the world” because his wife, kids and grandkids will all be with him at the gathering. On the day of the event, friends and family enjoy food and music and make emotional tributes to Guadalupe. On their decision to have a living wake, Guadalupe, Jr. says they wanted to make sure that “the guy who’s leaving knows he’s loved.” Guadalupe died peacefully on July 7, 2018 at the age of 80.
Barbara Jean Simon, in Austin, Texas, has pancreatic cancer and is planning her green burial, an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional burial. Barbara travels to Eloise Woods Back to Nature Burials with her best friend TJ to pick out Barbara’s burial plot. Describing the process in which TJ will wash her body after she dies, Barbara says she’s overwhelmed by the unconditional love she feels. On April 28, 2018, Barbara died peacefully at home. Later, her friends and family wrap her body in biodegradable cloth and carry her to where she’ll be buried in a shallow grave next to a newly planted tree.
Sara Snider Green has chosen a space burial for her father “Tuna”, who she says was fascinated by space and time travel. Sara, her two kids and family friend Lisa are one of forty-five families who have come to Sierra County, New Mexico, to memorialize their loved ones by sending their cremated remains into space. Hitching a ride as a “secondary payload” with NASA, the families cheer as the rocket with the ashes of their loved ones is launched into space.
Dick Shannon, a former Silicon Valley engineer in Grass Valley, California, has terminal cancer. Having exhausted his treatment options, Dick has decided to use “medical aid in dying” (MAID), a legal procedure in the state. At a doctor’s visit, Dick and his wife learn the parameters for how he should take the drug cocktail that will end his life. Six months later, with his lungs failing, Dick hosts a get-together of close friends to say goodbye, and later shares a last dinner with his family. With his loved ones at his side, Dick died on his own terms on May 1, 2018. He was 76.
Emily and Ryan Matthias, in Van Meter, Iowa, had a five-year-old son Garrett who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017. When Garrett died, his parents respected his wishes not to have a funeral and instead held a party, a celebration of life, which took place ten days after his death. The event had everything that Garrett wanted – bouncy houses, snow cones and lots of kids having fun.
Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America is directed and produced by Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz; executive producers, Sheila Nevins, Jacqueline Glover; produced by Leah Williams, Xochitl Dorsey; edited by David Meneses; cinematography, Taylor Krauss and Matthew O’Neill; original music by Jonathan Zalben.
Billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and car mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are complete strangers, until fate lands them in the same hospital room. The men find they have two things in common: a need to come to terms with who they are and what they have done with their lives, and a desire to complete a list of things they want to see and do before they die. Against their doctor’s advice, the men leave the hospital and set out on the adventure of a lifetime.
In Disney/Pixar’s vibrant tale of family, fun and adventure, aspiring young musician named Miguel (voice of newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) embarks on an extraordinary journey to the magical land of his ancestors. There, the charming trickster Hector (voice of Gael Garcia Bernal) becomes an unexpected friend who helps Miguel uncover the mysteries behind his family’s stories and traditions.
Accomplished sports writer Mitch Albom (Hank Azaria) feels that his life is lacking, despite his success. When Mitch watches a television interview with his former university professor, Morrie Schwartz (Jack Lemmon), he is moved to reconnect with his old mentor, who is struggling with Lou Gehrig’s disease. As Mitch and Morrie get reacquainted, they engage in thoughtful conversations about a variety of significant topics, including love, happiness and death.
Professor Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson), an expert on the work of 17th-century British poet John Donne, has spent her adult life contemplating religion and death as literary motifs. Diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, she consents to an aggressive and experimental form of chemotherapy administered by Dr. Kelekian (Christopher Lloyd) and his assistant, Dr. Posner (Jonathan M. Woodward), her former student. Facing death on a personal level, she reflects on her life and work.
Featured Talks
Dr. Diane Meier is the director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care in New York City. As a palliative care specialist, she has an intimate view of how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting patients and their loved ones. Meier shares her Brief But Spectacular take on showing compassion during COVID-19.
In her brutally honest, ironically funny and widely read meditation on death, “You May Want to Marry My Husband,” the late author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal gave her husband Jason very public permission to move on and find happiness. A year after her death, Jason offers candid insights on the often excruciating process of moving through and with loss — as well as some quiet wisdom for anyone else experiencing life-changing grief.
Thinking about death is frightening, but planning ahead is practical and leaves more room for peace of mind in our final days. In a solemn, thoughtful talk, Judy MacDonald Johnston shares 5 practices for planning for a good end of life.
In a talk that’s by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, writer and podcaster Nora McInerny shares her hard-earned wisdom about life and death. Her candid approach to something that will, let’s face it, affect us all, is as liberating as it is gut-wrenching. Most powerfully, she encourages us to shift how we approach grief. “A grieving person is going to laugh again and smile again,” she says. “They’re going to move forward. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve moved on.”
At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? For many, it’s simply comfort, respect, love. BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician who thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients. Take the time to savor this moving talk, which asks big questions about how we think on death and honor life.
In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis. “Engaging in the full range of experience — living and dying, love and loss — is what we get to do,” Kalanithi says. “Being human doesn’t happen despite suffering — it happens within it.”
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OUR VIDEO LIBRARY
Created by Hospice Giving Foundation from interviews, personal storytelling, and inspiring educators.
In January 2019, CEO Siobhan Greene had the opportunity to interview two of the founders of the first Hospice in Monterey. Oncology nurse Becky Allen and psychologist Stephen Connor worked with Dr. Jerry Rubin in the 1970s. This series of interview clips share their stories and the rich history of compassion through end of life in Monterey County.
HG Foundation Symposium
