Any writer worth their salt knows that everyone, literally everyone, has a fascinating life story to tell. In that regard, our lives are lessened by every story we don’t hear. In turn, the best stories are told by those coming to the end of their unique life journeys. The author of this inspiring and edifying collection, Sacred Light, grants us the privilege of sharing her personal and moving interactions with hospice patients who, by definition, are experiencing the denouements of their cumulative life narratives. The stories she was granted—and now offers to her readers—are inspirational, deeply satisfying, and, yes, downright fascinating.

Nothing illuminates one’s life more clearly than the proximity of its ending, whether in one’s awareness or—as in this heartwarming book—as one’s literal reality. Perspective is expanded when the storyteller of that life is old enough to see it broadly and inclusively. In turn, the reduced perspective when the near-death teller is a child is exceedingly outmatched by the emotional empathy thereby provoked. That is not meant to suggest that the tone of this lovely book is sad—quite the opposite. Joanne Harvey writes beautifully. These true stories, related to her by their “life authors,” are imbued with added beauty due to her exquisite writing skills. Keeping in mind that the events and people surrounding those who are dying are not always so beautiful—sometimes brutally ugly—this reading experience is still filled with a whole lot of sacred light.

P.S. Bring a box of Kleenex.