Ordinary Deaths

Stories from Memory

By Samuel LeBaron
Categories: Literature & Language Studies, Auto/biography & Memoir, Health, Social Work & Psychology, Health & Medicine, Poetry, Psychology
Publisher: The University of Alberta Press
Paperback : 9781772126563, 248 pages, July 2022
Ebook (EPUB) : 9781772126723, 240 pages, September 2022
Ebook (PDF) : 9781772126730, 240 pages, September 2022

Table of contents

Introduction
1. Magic Medicine
2. Worms
3. Voices
4. Under Water
5. In the Barn
6. Aunt Margie
7. Charlie Gough
8. In the Field
9. To Tell the Truth
10. The Laughing Cure
11. La Llorona
12. Día de Muertos
13. Second Chances
14. Permission to Breathe
15. The Ferryman
16. Winterreise
17. Fathers
18. Lost Horses
19. The River Styx
20. Dream Baby
21. Safe Harbor
22. The Tillandsia
Epilogue 
Notes
Appreciations

Description

In Ordinary Deaths, Dr. Samuel LeBaron reminds us of our need for human connection when experiencing death and loss. Based on more than thirty years of working with children and adults dying from cancer, LeBaron’s memoir contains stories of longing, confusion, love, and humility—often woven together. Sharing recollections from his childhood in rural Alberta and experiences from his career, LeBaron reveals a life of vital, intimate connection with others. His employment at a morgue during medical school, his early years as a clinical psychologist, and later careers in primary care and hospice in California, all translate into compassion and a deep understanding of death. Writing as he faces his own terminal illness—Stage IV lung cancer—LeBaron helps readers find acceptance and solace.

Reviews

Samuel LeBaron … has collected his lessons from a lifelong dance with death into a profound memoir…. LeBaron’s recollections brim with emotional insights, celebrate the virtue of honesty between caregiver and patient, and authentically depict the value of letting each person find their particular way to peace and acceptance…. Ordinary Deaths reminds us that each individual’s path to death is as different and unique as their own life has been. In our death-denying world, that is extraordinary indeed.” John Terauds, Quill & Quire, August 31, 2022 [Full review at https://quillandquire.com/review/ordinary-deaths-stories-from-memory/]

"Writing [Ordinary Deaths] was a 15-year process made all the more poignant by the fact that LeBaron is, himself, dying. Two and a half years ago, LeBaron was diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer…. LeBaron’s ability to hold space for the uncertainty, mystery and doubts we have about dying is anything but ordinary." Deb Cummings, Alumni News, October 10, 2022 [Full article at https://alumni.ucalgary.ca/news/ordinary-deaths-anything]

"Through LeBaron’s stories and the filter of his imagination, we witness his experiences as psychologist, physician and person. His clinical testimony makes us reflect: We may not want to look at death, but we can’t look away from it either. Our fascination with the death of others is often accompanied by the denial of our own death.... But the book is more than a memoir of how to face death: Ordinary Deaths is about how to face life." Tony Errichetti, The Intima, October 24, 2022 [Full review at https://www.theintima.org/book-reviews-intima/ordinarydeathbysamuellebaron]