Nothing Left Unsaid: Creating a Healing Legacy with Final Words and Letters - Softcover

"We live each moment just a heartbeat away from death, at risk of losing everyone we love, or once loved. We can't change this sobering fact of life, but we can ensure that on any given day we have said the things that we would most want the important people in our lives to know. Mary Polce-Lynch conveys timeless wisdom and offers practical tools for affirming relationships and strengthening bonds of friendship and love. This book is a treasure for anyone who is mortal, or loves someone who is..." --Ira Byock, MD, author of Dying Well and The Four Things That Matter Most

"Dr. Mary Polce-Lynch mixes humanity and good science in discussing ways for people to write about life and death. There is solid evidence that writing about emotional upheavals in our lives can promote health. Nothing Left Unsaid takes this idea to an important new level, asking readers to contemplate their own deaths and imagine the impact on loved ones. By writing thoughtful goodbyes, both the surviving loved ones and the writer can benefit extraordinarily. I'm very impressed with the power of this book and its potential to make a difference in people's lives." --James W. Pennebaker, Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, author of Opening Up

"People die; relationships don't. Mary Polce-Lynch's profoundly moving book teaches all of us new ways to keep our most intimate relationships alive in the face of death. With Final Word and Legacy Letters, Mary encourages us to face the inevitability of death and loss together by writing to each other our love, appreciation, amends, and forgiveness before it's too late. Shortly after I was diagnosed with cancer and was lost in my sickness, my son read me a letter he had written to me. His words reached across the chasm separating us. His words reached my heart. Read Mary's book. Write your letters. I'm working on mine." --David Treadway, PhD, family therapist and author of Intimacy, Change, and other Therapeutic Mysteries and Dead Reckoning: A Therapist Confronts his own Grief