with author Kathleen Vallee Stein
Sunday, February 16 at 2:00 pm
There is no guidebook on when and how to stop treatment of a terminal illness. On Sunday, February 16 at Crowell Public Library, author Kathleen Vallee Stein will share her family’s experience with hospice which she chronicled in the book, Loving Choices, Peaceful Passing: Why My Family Chose Hospice. Ms. Stein will offer an intimate account of how the myriad end-of-life decisions affect a family. Bob Vallee had the courage to accept his impending death and lived out his final days at home in his daughter’s care. He passed peacefully, in his sleep, twenty-nine days after entering hospice.
Ms. Stein’s personal experience as a family member, not as
a doctor or hospice nurse, provides a window into how to solve problems of
mortality, of caring for a loved one, and of the terrors and rewards of
responsibility. She presents a lens-shifting view of role reversal as she takes
on more, and sometimes unexpected, responsibility for her parents. Stein also contends with the onslaught of
family issues, such as when her estranged brother showed up and resurrected
family feuds and unleashed sibling rivalry.
The topic of hospice is monumentally difficult for
families to discuss. Most Americans want to pass peacefully at home, but sixty
percent die in acute care hospitals and another twenty percent in nursing homes,*
often enduring aggressive and futile treatment. Stein’s candid recounting of
her difficult, but also transformative journey can allow family members to talk
honestly and plan ahead, thus avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering for their
loved ones, and for themselves.
Kathleen Vallee Stein was the Manager of the California Department
of Aging's Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) from 1989
to 1995. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor,
Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star-News and
the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Visit her at valleeview.com.
