In the Midst of Life

humour have kept me sane throughout
    Dr David Hackett, Dr Richard Lamerton, Dr Michael Boyes
    Dr Robin Moffat, President of the Medico-Legal Society Susan McGann, Paul Vaughan and Susan Watt of the Royal College of Nursing
    Louise Massen and Madeline Bass
    Patricia Schooling, for her several readings and invaluable suggestions All those who have supported me in prayer, especially Sister Christine and the Community of St John the Divine, Birmingham; Sister Elizabeth and the Convent of Our Lady, Kettering; the Sisters of the Love of God, Oxford
    The Chaplains of the Methodist Homes for the Aged, and St Francis Hospice for the Dying
    Colin Rivett, Eve Griffin, Jeremy Buckman, Counsellors
    Anna Powiecki, Eugenie Furniss and Claudia Webb at William Morris, Endeavour Entertainment, John Saunders, Kirsty Dunseath, Sophie Buchan and the team at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Carole Lewis, Sue Theobald, Christoper Howe
    David Hart, poet, priest and dreamer
    Patricia Birch, Joanna Bruce, MBE; Sue, Jayne and Jane, my sister and nieces who are nurses and care assistants
    Lydia Hart, Eleanor Hart
    Shelagh and her family in Israel, and Steve and Sandy, Wendy and Philip.
    — and the many people who have told me their stories but do not wish tobe named.
    Excerpt from
Nurse on Call
by Edith Cotterill, published by Ebury, Reproduced with permission of The Random House Group Ltd.
    Excerpt from
How We Die
by Sherwin B Nuland, published by Chatto & Windus. Reproduced with permission of Random House Group Ltd.
    Excerpt from ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ by Dylan Thomas from
Poems,
published by JM Dent, a division of the Orion Publishing Group. Reproduced with permission from David Higham Associates.
    Excerpt from
Four Quartets
by T.S. Eliot reproduced with permission of Faber.
    Excerpt from
Malone Dies by
Samuel Beckett reproduced with permission of Faber.
    Poems by David Hart reproduced with permission of the author and Five Seasons Press.
    All efforts have been made to obtain permission for the use of the excerpt from
Truman of St Helens
by Shirley Rosen. Anyone with rights to this book is invited to contact theauthor.

 
    Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and was later ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, then the Marie Curie Hospital, also in London. Music had always been her passion, and in 1973 she left nursing in order to study music intensively, teaching piano and singing for about twenty-five years. Jennifer died in May 2011 after a short illness, leaving her husband Philip, two daughters and three grandchildren. Her books have all been bestsellers.

By Jennifer Worth
     
    Eczema and Food Allergy
    Call the Midwife
    Shadows of the Workhouse
    Farewell to the East End
    In the Midst of Life

Copyright
     
    A PHOENIX EBOOK
    First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    First published in ebook in 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    This updated ebook published in 2011 by Phoenix.
    Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Worth
    The right of Jennifer Worth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
    This is a work of non-fiction, and the events it recounts are true. However, the names and certain identifying characteristics of some of the people who appear in its pages have been changed. The views expressed in this book are the author’s.
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
    ISBN: 9780297859598
    Orion Books
    The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
    Orion House
    5 Upper St Martin’s Lane
    LondonWC2H 9EA
    An Hachette UK Company
    www.orionbooks.co.uk

* from
How We Die,
Sherwin B Nuland, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1993

** Ahronheim, J C, Morrison, R S, Baskin, S A, Morris, J, Meier, D E. Treatment of the dying in the acute care hospital. Advanced dementia and metastatic cancer.
Archives of Internal Medicine,
1996; 156: 2094-100.

* From Shirley Rosen,‘
Truman of St Helens’,
published by Madrona Publishers, Seattle, Washington State, 1981