How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick
Everyone knows someone who’s sick or suffering. Yet when afriend or relative is under duress many of us feel uncertain about how to cope.
Throughout her recent bout with breast cancer, Letty CottinPogrebin became fascinated by her friends’ and family’s diverse reactions toher and her illness: how awkwardly some of them behaved, how some misspoke ormisinterpreted her needs, and how wonderful it was when people read her right. She began talking to her fellow patients and dozens of other veterans ofserious illness, seeking to discover what sick people wished their friends knewabout how best to comfort, help, and even simply talk to them.
Now Pogrebin has distilled their collective storiesand opinions into this wide-ranging compendium of pragmatic guidance and usablewisdom. Her advice is always infused with sensitivity, warmth, and humor. It isembedded in candid stories from her own and others’ journeys and theirsometimes imperfect interactions with well-meaning friends. How to Be aFriend to a Friend Who’s Sick is an invaluable guidebook for anyone hopingto rise to the challenges of this most important and demanding passage offriendship.
