How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick

Reviews

“A lively, breezy, important book about conversations that are often difficult but need not be. How I wish I’d read this before some of my own cringe-worthy mistakes. Remember how your mom told you to just be yourself? Letty Pogrebin helps you be your best self, even in the most uncomfortable situations. You will thank her for giving you the courage to be a true friend.”

“I wish Letty’s wonderful book had been available thirteen years ago when I had cancer. I would have given it to all of my friends and begged them to read it.”

“Pogrebin, a veteran feminist, author, and cofounder (with Gloria Steinem) of Ms. magazine, uses her experience with breast cancer…to craft this bluntly practical and gently humorous guide to the dos and don’ts of caring for the ill… It’s the bravery and wisdom Pogrebin brought to her own battle that lifts this guide from a mere list of sickroom rules to invaluable lessons for sickness and health.”

“A cancer survivor channels her ordeal into reflections on the nature of empathy and friendships…A useful refresher course on navigating the complicated territory of compassionate companionship.”

“After examining a potentially difficult and nearly universal experience—dealing with a friend’s illness—from many points of view, Letty Pogrebin has turned her findings into wise and witty lessons about a prized but neglected human trait: empathy. In advising us on what to do and say, she also shows why she’s the kind of friend we all would want to have if we were sick.”

“How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick gives us excellent tools and moving experiences to love and nurture the sick and dying. It urges and enables us to move toward those in need rather than fleeing in terror or despair. It is a handbook of kindness and care and will help patients and healers, which is ultimately all of us.”