In Memoriam

A moving account of the sudden illness and subsequent death of his mother, whose first symptoms of cancer are discovered during a family visit with the author at Yale in the fall of 1978. Though Nouwen’s reflections on the way he experienced his mother’s death were intended originally for his own and his family’s cherished remembrance, copies circulated among close friend eventually led to pleas for publication. Yielding, Nouwen notes in his introduction: “In life she belonged to a few; in death she is for all.” A precious legacy. And a priceless aid in ministering to the bereaved.