Barbara's Death - 1976

<p>In the late summer of 1975 Barbara Long - highschool teacher mother of four children political activist and the wife of psychologist Lewis Long showed the first signs of an illness (cancer of the brain) that would lead to her death seven months later in the early spring of 1976. Barbara's Death-1976 is the story of Lewis Long's painful journey through those seven months and the weeks immediately thereafter. The author's descriptions of the events of that journey and his responses sometimes irrational to the many things he faced are etched with a clarity insight and awareness born from years of experience as a husband a father a teacher and a psychologist. Clearly Dr. Long was supported greatly by his own convictions and strengths but he was buttressed even more strongly by the loving support and care he received from relatives friends co-workers neighbors and members of his church. After the death of Barbara (and after the eerily similar death of his second wife Alice also from brain cancer) Dr. Long found himself far more aware of the sufferings of his fellow human beings and much more willing to respond to and help those in need.</p>