Surviving Hospice: A Chaplain’s Journey into the Business of Dying by Maryclaire Torinus

Medical/ Grief and Bereavement: 261 pages

Published: October 2023 by Manhattan Book Group

Reviewed by Janice P Kehler MA MSc

Maryclaire Torinus writes of her journey as a chaplain attending to the end-of-life care for dying patients and working within the changing landscape of medical companies providing hospice services. The book is divided into three parts, the largest being the spiritual stories of her clients (compressed into composite narratives) and her own story as a chaplain and wife whose husband is awaiting a heart transplant. Parts two and three address the hospice care industry: what goes right, how and why things go wrong, and advice for individuals concerned with finding a trustworthy hospice care provider. 

            The spiritual stories included in part one reveal the role of a chaplain, a presence that is a bridge between the patient and the suffering. Alongside the author's poetic sensibility, the reader will gain insight into the raw clarity that the knowledge of the end of a life entails. Despite the suffering, the author brings a calmness that underscores the myths of an ideal death by alternating between the individual and the institutional narrative. The narrative brings together the point of view of the chaplain, the patient, and their family, providing the reader with an inclusive, vital, and spiritual narrative of the end-of-life journey. 

            The book's last two parts dissect how the hospice care industry transformed from a non-profit mission striving to meet the complicated needs of patients and families to the more streamlined efficiencies of the for-profit sector. A transformation she witnessed firsthand as her employer changed hands from a mission-driven enterprise to one driven to make a profit. Her reporting is even-handed and well-researched, including perspectives from trade organizations, CEOs, lawmakers, insurance providers, lawyers, clinicians, and various hospice care providers. It is a cautionary tale that weighs the needs of dying patients and their families against the desires of financial investors.

            Overall, the reader can expect to gain an in-depth understanding of hospice care as well as honest and well-documented advice and resources. Surviving Hospice will be especially welcomed, a breath of fresh air for families and patients beginning the end-of-life journey.

Reviewer Janice P Kehler MA MSc writes personal essays and short stories. Her hybrid memoir, Ode to Olympic Dreams, published in November 2023, is her first book-length publication. Currently, she is posting on her blog (jpkehler.com) a series of Untold Stories that are emerging with the dawn of the Paris Games this July. Fans of the Games will be especially interested in the backstory of the many changes that the officials of the Paris Games plan to implement.