The Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live

by Scott Eberle

This book from Lost Borders Press is the story of two worlds meeting, told on both a personal and an historical scale. The personal account recalls "the final crossing" of Steven Foster - one of the pioneers of modern-day wilderness rites of passage - from the perspective of the hospice physician who helped ferry him across. Interspersed with Steven and Scott's story is a more sweeping historical view of how the rites of passage movement and the hospice movement have converged. "This is an extraordinarily wise and compassionate book written by a physician of the body and the heart. In this beautifully written account of the death of his beloved teacher and friend we can discover the great mystery of meeting death as a teacher and friend. This book is for all of us. Its depths plumb ours, its wisdom opens ours, and the compassion of its author reminds us that this quality resides in all of us." - Joan Halifax Roshi, Abbot of Upaya Zen Center, founder of the Project on Being with Dying, and author of The Fruitful Darkness.

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Danny]

I can’t say I loved this book since the topic is so serious and challenging. Truth is it took me months of off and on reading to make my way through it. A year after my father’s death, however, I had the emotional distance to read this book’s detailed accounts of the dying process - emotional and physical. I’m convinced that we all need to be more prepared to face this detail when our loved ones die and when inevitably we all do. This beautifully written account of a doctor’s work primarily with one terminal patient will prepare us for this experience and ultimate journey.

[Judithproller]

a great perspective about living and dying. the author is so spiritually honest. Easy to get into.

[Darleen]

An important book to explore ways of preparing for death via the author's memoir of accompanying a colleague's final weeks of life and his death. I found some passages poignant.