Visiting Maggie

"Maggie is terminal. But she isn't terminal all the time. Her death comes as tearful minutes, painful hours, or bad days, but her life in between is all vital and full of hope."

Many books have been written about grief and the grieving process. This is a particularly honest one. It is a memoir about the death of the author's best friend, in Italy, written over a three month period in 1984.

"Because her cancer was so relentless," Anita Harmon writes, "I kept notes to clear my head. I wanted to be as fully present with her as I could - as true to as our friendship as I could be, unencumbered by my own horrified reactions. I hope that no one today has to go through what Maggie went through. I hope pain management is more effective than it was 40 years ago. Because this was not a good death. The only dignity there was came from Maggie herself."

Because she thought her journal would remain private, Harmon is very frank about her reactions. "At the time I wrote these pages it didn't occur to me that they might be helpful to other people faced with a similar situation. People who, in their turn, may be ashamed of their own response to unbearable loss."

Over the years, she shared the manuscript with friends. Inspired by her honesty, by the vivid portraits of Maggie's Italian family, by the humor and love that emerged in the face of loss, they urged her to share Maggie's story more widely. This book is the result.

Anita Harmon is a British born artist, poet and former therapist. She has worked in private practice and as a consultant to organizations in business and government in the UK and US.