Ramira Publishing, Aptos, California. 800.766.0629 ?http://www.sharedheart.org
Authors of 5 popular books, Joyce and Barry Vissell, release poignant new book that will change the way people think about death, dying, and end-of-life care?
A Mother?s Final Gift:
How One Woman?s Courageous Dying Transformed Her Family
ISBN-13: ?978-0-9612720-3-6, 216 pages
John Gray, Executive Producer, Creator, and Director: CBS-TV?s The Ghost Whisperer, writes: ?This book is moving, uplifting, and ennobling. While the topic is a daunting one, it?s handled with such sensitivity and insight ? and, yes, love ? that you are forced to reexamine your fears about death and dying?and dispense with them.?
George Daugherty, Emmy Award-winning producer, director, and conductor, writes:
?A Mother?s Final Gift is the story of one courageous woman ? Louise Viola Swanson Wollenberg ? and of her tremendous love of life and family, and her faith and resolve. But it is also the story of her equally courageous family who, in the process of rising to the occasion and carrying out Louise?s long-held final wishes, not only overcame so many stigmas about the process of death but, at the same time, rediscovered what it means to celebrate life itself. This book not only touches the heart in a very powerful, poignant, and joyful way, but reading it was life-changing for me. The title is indeed A Mother?s Final Gift but, in truth, this story is an exceptional gift to every person who will read it.?
?Three weeks before she passed from this world, my ninety-year-old mother, Louise Viola Swanson Wollenberg, began what she called her ?greatest adventure of all,?? writes Joyce Vissell in the beginning chapters of the book entitled A Mother?s Final Gift she co-wrote with her husband, Barry, and their three adult children. ?It all started 33 years ago.?
?When I was 27 years old, my mother came for a visit to our small rented home in Scotts Valley, CA. One morning, she approached me and said, ?Joyce, can we sit down together? I have something important to ask of you.??
?She spoke firmly but gently, ?When it?s my time to die, I want you to be excited for me. I?m not afraid to die. I feel that death will be my greatest adventure. When I lay dying, I want you to help me prepare for that great adventure. No matter how old I am, please know that I?ve had a good life and I?m grateful for all of it.??
Joyce was shocked and confused, since her mother was only 56 years old, active and in perfect health. However, 33 years later, Joyce found herself honoring her mother?s request as she lay dying in her little apartment above the garage. She writes, ?As we gave my mother her final gift in honoring her dying process, she gave us her final gift of opening a window into eternity and allowing us to have a peek.?
?Too many dying family members are still put away in nursing homes, where they often are out of sight and out of mind,? writes the book?s co-author, medical doctor, and Joyce?s husband of 46 years, Barry Vissell. ?They are also ?out of heart,? where the rest of the family misses out on an abundance of love and opportunities for personal and spiritual growth of the highest order.?
? ?A Mother?s Final Gift is the inspiring true story of a family of five ? a daughter and her husband and three children ranging in age from 17 to 30 ? who each cared for their mother and grandmother on a daily basis and write about the transformation and gifts they received in the process.
? ?This is a book for anyone who has ever wondered what it is actually like to die and how they can make the experience their greatest adventure of all.
? ?It will inspire anyone who is caring for a loved one, or thinks they might do so one day.
? ?It will help anyone who wants to overcome the fear of death, so that they might live with more happiness and joy.
To request a review copy, email Ramira Publishing at mira@sharedheart.org. For more information go to: http://www.sharedheart.org.
More Praise for A Mother?s Final Gift:
?A Mother?s Final Gift is about the many facets of a family?s journey toward transformation, and the inspirations they experienced firsthand as they witnessed the great and intimate passage of their beloved mother, grandmother and friend, Louise. As always, the Vissell Family ?live their values? and exemplify to us the meaning of true love.?
? Connection Magazine
?A rare and touching account! If you would like to deepen your connection with your family, especially during the time of a passing of a loved one, this book will give you courage, inspiration, and a higher vision that will soothe your soul and help you navigate transition. It?s a magnificent testament to love and the power of family to navigate transition.?
? Alan Cohen, author of Linden?s Last Life
?The Vissell family has written a beautiful and moving account of their mother?s (and grandmother?s) death. Despite her challenges, Louise Wollenberg lived her dying as a celebration of life. Her open and courageous heart became a portal to the other side, and her presence became a place of healing. This book will comfort and inspire.?
? Michael Kearney, MD, FRCPI, Medical Director of the Palliative Care Service at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Associate Medical Director at Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care.
?This is a goose bump book, a 10 hankie page-turner and a real primer for a loving, dying experience. Anyone who is caring for a loved one in the last stages of life or wanting to better understand conscious dying will gain comfort and insight from its pages.?
? Caroline Sutherland, author of The Body Knows
About the Authors
Joyce Vissell, RN, MS, and Barry Vissell, MD, have been a couple since 1964. As a nurse and a physician, their main interest since 1972 has been counseling and teaching. As a result of the worldwide interest in their books, they travel internationally teaching about personal growth, relationship, and parenting. They are the founders and directors of the Shared Heart Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing love and consciousness to all relationships. Their five deeply-moving books on relationship, family and personal growth are:
THE SHARED HEART: Relationship Initiations and Celebrations
MODELS OF LOVE: The Parent-Child Journey
RISK TO BE HEALED: The Heart of Personal and Relationship Growth
THE HEART?S WISDOM: A Practical Guide to Growing through Love
MEANT TO BE: Miraculous True Stories to Inspire a Lifetime of Love
As a result of the wide popularity and unique perspective of these books, Barry and Joyce have been sought after to present talks and workshops internationally. They are regular guests on radio and TV nationally.
They are contributors to the New York Times bestselling series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.
They write a monthly column, New Dimensions of Relationship, which appears in 80 publications nationwide.
The Vissells are the 1991 recipients of The Aquarian Award, a national honor given to those who have made an ?outstanding contribution to the transformation of human consciousness.?
In 2004, a story from their book, Meant To Be, was made into a CBS Movie of the Week, It Must Be Love, starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen (real-life husband and wife actors), and directed by Emmy-winner Steven Schacter.
The Vissells have two daughters, born in 1976 and 1981, and a son born in 1989. They are committed to ?walking their talk,? so they spend as much quality time as they can cultivating their relationship with each other and with their children.
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Published on September 30, 2011 ? Filed under: family;ist multiplication games multiplication games lenny kravitz burberry burberry physics games
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