Inside Out Heart

This is a personal, poetic exploration of what it means for a son to care for his father in his final year of life, and what then arises after death has come, and the caring period has ended.







After his father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the author, SJP Dooley, became his primary carer. During the challenges of this final year, as his father lay bedridden, the author sought solace in the poems that came to him. This book is the result.







"In describing the final year of his father's life, Simon Dooley uses diary entries, prose and poetry as a means of inviting readers into the experience of living with death on your shoulder. It is a candid and poignant exploration of being with dying, and deftly reveals how compassion can be the anti-dote for pain and that nothing is more enriching and awakening than each precious moment shared with a dying loved one. It is the story of two ordinary lives overcoming the extraordinary through the love they have for each other. A valuable read that will inform and inspire readers about the mystery surrounding life and death."



Dr Michael Barbato, Author of "Midwifing Dying" and "Caring for the living and dying"