About the Book
“We need to hear this story now. The honesty and clarity of Kramer and Cathy Wurzer invite us to consider how we live in the face of impending death or unwanted change.”
—Susan Allen Toth, author of No Saints Around Here: A Caregiver’s Days
This is a book about healing even if there is no cure, light even when there is darkness and meaningful living in the face of impending death.
Don’t be frightened. This is a mirror of your own life, you just might not realize it yet.
Deeply introspective, but with themes that all readers can relate to, We Know How This Ends: Living while Dying relates the physical, emotional and spiritual encounters of Bruce Kramer, a person living with Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS. (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
In December 2010, the life Bruce knew was shattered after he was diagnosed with the mysterious disease where the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord slowly die off, leaving a person unable to move, swallow, talk or breathe. Researchers now think ALS has ties to other, better known diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Muscular Dystrophy and Multiple Sclerosis.
As with the other motor neuron diseases, there is no cure for ALS and most people with it live two to five years before dying.
As Bruce’s disease progresses, his experiences, framed through the observations of journalist Cathy Wurzer, at first appear to be unique to him. But Bruce’s story is our story, and We Know How This Ends… helps readers prepare for what most of us fear most: dying, and in the process the book explores what it truly means to live.