On Death and Dying Well

When I was a child, I was so frightened about death. I was scared and shaky every time we went to a funeral home. I was afraid if I got too close to the casket that I might catch what the corpse had that caused them to die.

It was the same at my grandmother's funeral.

I remember everyone crying, but when I saw her in the casket, I still did not comprehend the word 'dead.' No one was explaining dead to me. It looked like she was sleeping. But then they took her box, what I know of as today "the coffin," and put her in the ground and covered her up and I finally grasped that I was not ever going to see her again. I was overcome with as much sadness as a child could be at that age. I was sick to my stomach, and I did not know how to express it to anyone.

I have come a long way since then.

This book is my attempt at familiarizing you with death - what is it that you fear about death, what actually happens in the dying process, what others think when they know death is imminent, what the Bible says about death and heaven, and most of all that death really is nothing to fear.

I could have not written a book about death without drawing from my Christian beliefs. I do not think this makes the book any less valuable if you come from a different religion, but I do feel it is important that you know.