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    Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love
    Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love
    Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love
    Ebook400 pages1 hour

    Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love

    By Marissa Moss

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Last Things is the true and intensely personal story of how one woman coped with the devastating effects of a catastrophic illness in her family.

    Using her trademark mix of words and pictures to sharp effect, Marissa Moss presents the story of how she, her husband, and her three young sons struggled to maintain their sense of selves and wholeness as a family and how they continued on with everyday life when the earth shifted beneath their feet.

    After returning home from a year abroad, Marissa’s husband, Harvey, was diagnosed with ALS. The disease progressed quickly, and Marissa was soon consumed with caring for Harvey while trying to keep life as normal as possible for her young children. ALS stole the man who was her husband, the father of her children, and her best friend in less than 7 months.

    This is not a story about the redemptive power of a terminal illness. It is a story of resilience—of how a family managed to survive a terrible loss and grow in spite of it. Although it’s a sad story, it’s powerfully told and ultimately uplifting as a guide to strength and perseverance, to staying connected to those who matter most in the midst of a bleak upheaval. If you’ve ever wondered how you would cope with a dire diagnosis, this book can provide a powerful example of what it feels like and how to come through the darkness into the light.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel
    Release dateMay 1, 2017
    ISBN9781633410596
    Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love
    Author

    Marissa Moss

    Marissa Moss is the award-winning author-illustrator of more than 75 books, from picture books to middle-grade to graphic novels. She is best known for the Amelia's Notebook series, which has sold millions of copies. She lives in California.

    Read more from Marissa Moss

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    Reviews for Last Things

    4.5/5

    18 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      graphic memoir; losing a husband/father to terminal illness (ALS)
      heartbreaking and so sad, but beautifully memorialized--this will ring true for anyone who has ever known someone in hospice.
    • 4/5
      I was very moved by this powerful memoir of a family and marriage foundering under the weight of a terminal illness. The anger at the situation and each new development from both the ALS sufferer and his wife struck a chord with me; I could see myself reacting similarly if I were either of them. Moss very effectively depicts stress brought on not only by the diagnosis but the maddening pressure of the unrelenting series of decisions that have to be made thereafter and the second-guessing and recriminations that can follow each and every one. Popular culture too often shows us sainted terminal patients murmuring platitudes to their constantly loving and supportive families. I'm very grateful to Moss for sharing this warts and all account of the end of life.

      Once I started reading, I could not stop until I finished the whole book, and the ending brought me to tears.

    Book preview

    Last Things - Marissa Moss

    Advance Praise for Last Things

    "Loving, moving, and articulate, Last Things is packed with emotional truth. It’s a clear-eyed testimony to the way death arrives, sometimes inch by inch, inspiring the courage and strength and generosity that are the best things we bring to this life."

    —Jennifer Hayden, Eisner-nominated author of Underwire and The Story of My Tits

    "Before reading Marissa Moss’ Last Things I was unaware of how profoundly moved I could be by a graphic novel. With her gentle touch and brave honest voice, we experience how completely one’s life and expectations can be changed with a single devastating diagnosis. I absolutel y loved Last Things!"

    —Luisa Smith, Book Passage

    A gripping portrayal of how devastating ALS can be, but also a powerful example of resilience and hope.

    —Dr. Catherine Lomen-Hoerth, neurologist, ALS clinic, UCSF

    "If anyone still thinks the graphic format can’t be used to tell deep, grown-up, powerful stories, Last Things ought to change their mind. It’s about all the big questions: How we live, how we raise our children, how we survive seemingly unbearable loss. Moss’s authenticity, raw honesty and vulnerability will help anyone who’s struggling with loss and ‘lasts’—ultimately, that’s all of us."

    —Marjorie Ingall, author of Mamaleh Knows Best

    For every person affected by ALS, there is a story to tell. From her front-line perspective, Marissa Moss bravely shares her family’s challenges during her husband’s journey with ALS in a very personal way. We are grateful for her efforts to raise awareness and support for people living with ALS and their families.

    —The ALS Association Golden West Chapter

    "With expressive drawings and an earnest reflective voice, Marissa Moss creates real intimacy with her readers, bringing them into this personal story of disease, heartbreak, and love. Last Things testifies to the redemptive power of memory, history, and writing."

    —Amy Kurzweil, author of The Flying Couch

    Powerful and beautiful—this book is a great addition to the graphic memoir canon.

    —Ian Lendler, author of The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents MacBeth

    I was swept into the story, swept along.—Joan Lester, author of Mama’s Child

    This is a very brave and beautifully drawn account. Anyone coping with the loss of a spouse is going to benefit—and any reader can relate to the family dynamics, the stress of caregiving, and the crisis of a terminal disease.

    —Eleanor Vincent, author of Swimming with Maya: A Mother’s Story

    This is a very powerful story. It needs to be published (and I say that as someone who has no personal connection with ALS). It’s a universal story of connection and separation and searching for reconnection after a loss.

    —Bill Boerman-Cornell, professor of education, Trinity College

    "An important book that needs to be in the world. It’s a hard read, but sometimes surviving and resilience is what makes people stronger. Ultimately that’s what Last Things celebrates, not dying, but strength, the strength our families give us."

    —Kathleen Caldwell, A Great Good Place for Books, Oakland CA

    In this deeply affecting graphic memoir, Moss lays out the struggles of trying to live as her husband is dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her simple drawings reveal the pain and anguish her characters don’t know how to express in words, making the format a perfect choice for the story. Those facing similar situations will feel relief at finding their struggles and confusion laid clearly on a page. A sad, haunting memoir.

    —Marika McCoola, New York Times bestselling author of Baba Yaga’s Assistant.

    Last Things is one of the most amazingly poignant and honest memoirs—graphic or otherwise—I’ve ever encountered. This book—which I read in one insatiable sitting—tore my heart in two. Moss handles the material with such a delicate sensibility, both with her drawings and her text, I couldn’t help but let her carry me along on her journey of love and loss."

    –Katie Hafner, contributing writer to The New York Times

    and author of Mother, Daughter, Me: A Memoir

    Every doctor should read this book for the emotionally powerful insight it gives into how serious illness affects a family.

    —Robert Wachter, Chair of Dept. of Medicine, UCSF and author of New York Times’ Bestseller

    The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age

    This journey is one that we rarely speak about, but it absolutely needs to be told. Marissa’s messages to all of us are powerful, profound and touching as she navigates the death of her husband. I feel honored to be part of it.

    —Stuart Kelman, Founding Rabbi, Congregation Netivot Shalom

    An incredibly moving and important memoir. Having raised my daughter on the Amelia’s Notebook series, I found it particularly personal and heartbreaking. Everyone should read this book.

    —Isabel Berg, BookEnds, Winchester, MA

    Copyright © 2017 by Marissa Moss

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

    means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval

    system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

    Artwork by Marissa Moss

    Cover and interior design by Simon Stahl

    Original font created by Simon Stahl

    Illustration page 25: Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man by David A. Adler.

    Copyright © 1997 by Terry Widener. Cover reproduction used by permission from

    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

    Conari Press

    Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

    www.redwheelweiser.com

    Sign up for our newsletter and special offers by going to

    www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter/

    ISBN:   978–1–57324–698–9

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959030

    Printed in the United States of America

    EBM

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    To Harvey, always.

    Preface

    This is a book about loss, but also about profound love. Anyone who has faced catastrophic illness will recognize in these pages that this is also a book about living, about the strong bonds of family and how they can sustain us through impossible situations. By sharing this story, I hope readers will experience our pain, be witnesses to it, and come out stronger for it.

    When my husband was first diagnosed with ALS, we didn’t have time to come to terms with the diagnosis, but were immediately plunged into a steep descent, ricocheting from crisis to crisis. I didn’t have the chance then to think about what it all meant. All I could do was react to the emergencies facing us. I started writing this memoir to sort it all out with words and pictures, since that’s how I think, how I’ve approached my children’s books. I needed to shape the whirlwind we had lived through so I could understand it better, so I could see that I had done what I could, and move beyond the inevitable guilt. In many ways, this is a portrait of marriage, how it can sustain and abandon us, how families heal themselves, and how to cling to a sense of self in the face of medical horrors and mind-numbing bureaucracy.

    So there’s heartbreak in these pages, but also universal truth. We all have the capacity to face adversity, to come through it, and to heal. We all think we know how to live good lives. What’s trickier is how to handle death, how to be with the dying and hold their pain and fear in our hearts. And then let them go.

    — Marissa Moss

    Contents

    Preface

    AUGUST

    OCTOBER

    NOVEMBER

    DECEMBER

    An ALS Primer

    JANUARY

    FEBRUARY

    Your Tracheostomy

    The Book

    The List

    MARCH

    APRIL

    Another List

    MAY

    JUNE

    The Book

    The Boys

    First Things

    Author's Note

    Acknowledgments

    To Our Readers

    Things we’re grateful for:

    The sun on St. Peter’s dome.

    Walking home over Bernini’s Bridge of Angels.

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