by the same author
Small Maps of the World
Moon Dance
Camera Phone
The Invention of Dying
Brooke Biaz
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com
Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA
© 2015 by Parlor Press.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biaz, Brooke.
The invention of dying / Brooke Biaz. -- First edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-1-60235-539-2 (softcover : acid-free paper)
1. Death--Psychological aspects--Fiction. 2. Women physicians--Fiction. 3. Fear of death--Fiction. 4. Medical fiction. I. Title.
PR9619.3.H324I58 2015
823’.914--dc23
2015019830
Cover image by David Marcu. From Unsplash. Used by permission.
Cover design by Lea Anna Cardwell.
Printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5
First Edition
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper and digital formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, SC 29621, or e-mail [email protected].
To the Faculty and Staff of the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Contents
Acknowledgments to the Deceased xi
Our Story 3
1a. The Facts About Dying 5
1b. 1971: Dying and Love Go Hand in Hand 7
1c. By the Chin 32
2a. The Conception, Birth and Life of Death 36
2b. Certain Sounds 44
Waiting, 2012 48
Our New Cemetery 53
Death’s Arrival I 62
Death Rides Again 68
Five Final Hats 72
Death’s Story 83
A Note on Albert Einstein’s Brain 85
A Nurse Considers Patients 90
Death’s Story 100
Making the Hospital 101
A Treatise on Doctors Not Found in The Communion Islands 114
Holoquet, The Anka River, The Communion Islands 120
Our Story 127
Still in Search 128
Death’s Story 133
Firstly, At the Beginning 134
These Young Islands 139
Outgoing Mail 148
And Now a Doctor for The Communion Islands 153
Me: Alternatively 157
What a Women Looks Like When She Finally Turns Up 169
A New Doctor in a New Town 176
Vital Acknowledgments 185
About the Images 187
About the Author 193
Figure 1.
“I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.”
—Modern Hippocratic Oath
Nunc scio quid sit Amor
—Virgil
Acknowledgments to the Deceased
I would like to thank the following dead persons for their insurgence, their altitude, and their peace:
Quinton Frankton JJS
Betty Lynn Linton, Communion Islands Community Hospital
Dr Al Sharlton, Oleanna Paediatric Center, Philadelphia
Professor Wendy Willeran NSTG
Frankston Haran
Sylvia Umperan CINN DDS
Will T. Esveri
Dr Thaxton Hight, of the Finton Memorial Hospital, Essex, England
Wilfred Molle LicAc
Professor Faust C. Nannacan
Lois M. Bytels R.N.
Hippocrates
Tom Arnold PXA, National Eye Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Dr Graham Fericirini ME FGTT OS RT
Professor Theresa Mathers RCOH
Philip Thandercaul ACO
Albert “Bert” Morrison
Dr Neville Schwartz, the Connecticut Health Center at Merritt
David Yonkers PSP,
