The Last Slice: Hospice nurse shares memoir
Author RuthiE Neilan, who grew up in Ronan, shares excerpts from her memoir, "A Sweet Taste of the Last Slice," Aug. 2 and 3.
Longtime Hospice nurse RuthiE Neilan, who grew up in Ronan, shares her memoir, “A sweet Taste of the Last Slice,” during a reading and reception at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2, at the North Lake County Library in Polson. She’ll also participate in the First Saturday event, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Ninepipes Museum south of Ronan.
Neilan will also play Native American flute – an instrument she regards as “my other voice” – at both events. The author regards the flute as a sacred instrument and its music as a form of prayer.
Now an octogenarian, Neilan recounts her experiences and the wisdom gleaned from more than 30 years of hospice work. “Dying patients taught me about living,” she writes.
Her anecdotes are poignant, intimate and sometimes humorous – beginning with the time she spent caring for her father in 1980 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Inspired by his death, the registered nurse eventually became a hospice volunteer and certified hospice nurse, and earned a master’s degree in Expressive Arts Therapy.
She concludes her memoir with a meditation that imagines what death might be like.
She currently lives at an assisted living facility in Ohio and cares for Bob, her husband of 56 years who suffers from Parkinson’s and dementia.
As for the title of her book, it stems from an observation she made while defending her master’s thesis: “Imagine being the guest of honor at a banquet held on Holy Ground. The world’s finest chocolate is served to you for dessert. You are given a sweet taste of the last slice,” she told her classmates. “It’s like that in hospice.”