Letters to Myself on Dying.

Book Review.

Vos Myrth.  Letters to Myself on Dying.  A journal of hope, pain, & courage.  Baker Books 1999.

Comment. Henry.

What attracted me to this title on the library shelf was my previous read of “What Dying People Want” by David Kuhl.  What Myrth shares focuses more on what she, a dying person experienced but her ‘wants’ are not difficult to understand.  Not surprisingly her experience is in so many ways a spiritual, psychological, and emotional roller coaster.  She is an evangelical Christian.  She has been a marriage and family psychotherapist in practice for nearly twenty years. Her husband is a pastor.  They live in Barrie, Ontario.

Myrth was diagnosed with cancer in 1982, 1990, and 1996.  The third diagnosis revealed terminal lung cancer.  She decided to journal her journey.  This book is the result of that journey.  It spans a time period from April 22, 1998 till April 22, 1999.  There are Scriptures included in each entry which relate to the issues that are being dealt with.  The months become ‘chapter divisions’.

The information about the discovery of the cancer as a result of a cat-scan came through a telephone call from Myrth’s doctor.  She and her husband processed the information on their own and then gradually began to share their tragedy with an expanding circle of family and friends.  

Very early on in her experience Myrth shares about her struggles of making a practical application of her faith.  It is really a struggle (conflict) between heart and head, faith and reality, etc.  The material for her ‘letters’ comes from intense studies of Scripture as she seeks for answers to her questions.  In all this she is receiving huge support from her husband, family, and friends. 

There isn’t any area of her life that is not impacted by this journey of terminal cancer.  There seems to be an amazing ‘yo-yo’ element in her experience which adds ongoing stress.  At one point test results show evidence of the disappearance of tumors thanks to treatments.  However in short order new areas of infection appear and so it goes.  The mountains and valleys of spiritual victory continue.  The process of deterioration continues with its corresponding debilitation and agony.  The journaling comes to an end exactly one year after it was begun.  The story is obviously not over and there are no ‘follow-up’ comments about the actual end of Myrth’s life.  And so the book becomes a source of focus on an important ‘chapter’ of dealing with dying. 

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