Hospital Chaplain Delivers Powerful Stories of Life and Death

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ Joan Maxwell delivers searing accounts of life and death in her new memoir Soul Support: Spiritual Encounters at Life's End, published by Wipf and Stock and now available for purchase. Soul Support tells intimate true stories of people coming to terms with their final days, and offers stirring behind-the-scenes accounts of the many ways patients, their families and friends, and hospital staff all deal with death and dying. This compelling memoir by hospital chaplain Joan Paddock Maxwell speaks to readers reflecting on their own mortality or the life-threatening illness of a loved one, and tells of the sometimes-astonishing events that can occur when people near their lives' ends.

In her role as a hospital palliative care chaplain, Maxwell's eyewitness exposure to the dying process taught her ways to provide emotional and spiritual support to patients and their families, helping them find greater peace as they faced death. Soul Support is as much about Maxwell's experiences as a spiritual companion as it is about the patients'.

"I have been privileged to be present with hundreds of people as they neared death," Maxwell says. "Drawing from what they taught me, I wrote this book to help others who want to support a loved one who is dying."

Readers are giving Soul Support: Spiritual Encounters at Life's End high praise.

"The book is beautiful and profound and courageously bare."
-Schroeder Stribling, executive director, N Street Village, Washington DC.

"Soul Support is both a thoughtful presentation and a brilliant modeling of the chaplain's craft at its finest."
Cynthia Bourgeault, Episcopal priest, author, and retreat leader

"Soul Support will deeply touch all who read about the sacred space of those facing their own mortality, and those who dare to journey with them."
-Jan Naylor Cope, provost, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC

Soul Support: Spiritual Encounters at Life's End can be purchased at http://wipfandstock.com/soul-support-spiritual-encounters-at-life-s-end.html

Maxwell kicks off a multi-city book tour to raise awareness about Soul Support. All profits from the sale of Soul Support will be given to the Shalem Institute of Washington, DC, which nurtures contemplative living and leadership.

About Joan Maxwell
Joan Paddock Maxwell was trained and served as a chaplain in three acute-care hospitals in the Washington, DC area. During six years as palliative care chaplain, she served patients with life-threatening illnesses. The co-author of two previously published books, she received a Master of Theological Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary and was endorsed as a hospital chaplain by the Episcopal Church. She lives in Washington, DC and Deer Isle, ME with her husband David.

Contact: Angela Hayes
angela.hayes@collinshayes.com
404.734.9009