Description
Book SynopsisWritten with wisdom, genuine humor, and downtoearth observations, We Know How This Ends is far more than a memoir about life with ALS. It is a dignified, courageous, and unflinching look at how acceptance of loss and inevitable death can lead us all to a more meaningful and fulfilling life.
Trade Review "Security and immortality are both superstitions; the best we can do is make an adventure of our lives. In this exquisite book, Bruce H. Kramer finds adventure in the most unlikely of places: the death sentence that is ALS. We Know How This Ends is a moving tale that teaches us more about living well than any self-help book ever can."—Dan Buettner, New York Times best-selling author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest
"The revelatory journey that Bruce H. Kramer and Cathy Wurzer take us on is full of insight, wisdom, sorrow—and joy. This beautiful book should be required reading for all patients, caregivers, and clinicians to better understand that there can be growth and peace and exuberant life even while dying."—Jon Hallberg, M.D., University of Minnesota
"As Bruce’s yoga teacher, student, and friend, I have witnessed the story behind this magnificent tale of becoming. I have watched his strength, his grace, and his willingness to love. Bruce’s prose is courageous and penetrating, elegant and unprecedented. This book will change your life."—Matthew Sanford, author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence
"Bruce H. Kramer turns his diamond-hard diagnosis like a prism, reflecting light and joy in surprising places. We need to hear this story now. The honesty and clarity of Kramer and Cathy Wurzer invite us to consider how we live in the face of impending death or unwanted change."—Susan Allen Toth, author of No Saints around Here: A Caregiver’s Days
"Yet what comes through most powerfully in Kramer's story is not the pain but the quiet surge of gratitude and joy he has discovered in confronting his imminent death."—Next Avenue, Twin Cities Public Television
"Poetic and practical in embracing the inevitable."—MinnPost
"Kramer is an excellent writer, a former college professor of education, spinning language in fascinating ways to make the reader stop and think, fell, and explore the profound lessons of a man facing death. He show great wisdom, and the lessons presented in his book apply to all."—Mainstay
"We Know How This Ends is a hopeful book. And a serious, joyful, literate, nuanced, bracing and funny book."—The Huffington Post
"There are so many true words of wisdom in this book. "—The Caregivers’ Living Room
"Kramer is a powerful writer with a gift for crafting fresh descriptions, situations and emotions that are often reduced to clichés. He provides anyone with a terminal disease, and anyone caring for someone with one, with an eloquent guidebook on how to cope with eventual loss and embrace the days that are left."—The National Book Review
"A gripping account."—Star Tribune
Table of ContentsContents
Prologue
Cathy Wurzer
1. Parallel Lives
2. The Footman Snickers
3. A House Built on Sand
4. A Delicate Dance
5. Disease and Dis Ease
6. Faith, Part I: Fulfilling What Is Meant to Be
7. The Tell
8. It Isn’t Just about You
9. The Gift
10. Happy Anniversary
11. Faith, Part II: It’s Your Choice
12. Handbook for the Recently Dis Eased
13. Time Traveling
14. Tripping the Light Fantastic
15. Killing the Buddha
16. The Gravity of It All
17. Ready to Fall
18. The Metrics of Measurement
19. A Death-Defining Feat
20. The Non–Bucket List
21. The Widening Gyre
22. Faith, Part III: Wrestling with Angels
23. Inside Out
24. Dis Ease Yoga
25. Faith, Part IV: What’s Love Got to Do with It?
26. We Know How This Ends
Acknowledgments
