{"product_id":"the-last-caravan-the-power-of-community-at-the-end-of-life-9781773861821","title":"The Last Caravan: The Power of Community at the End of Life","description":"Author Anna Byrne's close friend Mary Morgan spent her life looking for community. As a youth, the pain of Mary's mother's death is made more difficult by her family's silent grief, financial problems and disapproval of her identity as a lesbian. At 17, Mary leaves her troubled home in Toronto to live among the Guna peoples of Panama-- an adventure that ignites four decades of social justice work in war-torn countries around the globe. Flying kites with Bedouin children, smoking with Bosnian men, and resisting the Guatemalan Civil War alongside Maya women offers Mary a powerful salve for her yearning to belong: Chosen family-- communities based on mutual values and support. When faced with a terminal diagnosis while living in a remote British Columbian town with few resources, Mary brings the heart of her life's work-- the power of ordinary people to effect change-- to bear on her dying. In addition to Anna, she asks two other friends-- Jules, and Laurie-- to be her \" dying team\" and help her to die at home. Over 16 months, until her death with Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID), the team embarks on a profound experiment to curate Mary's vision of a death steeped in beauty, ceremony, and practical support through building a casket, hosting a home vigil, and transporting her body for a green burial. The journey to bring tenderness and creativity to one person's suffering emerges as an antidote to the urgency, scarcity, and loneliness that seek to define our lives-- and deaths. Anna Byrne's The Last Caravan offers a new paradigm for deathcare by returning it to the hands of the community.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Caitlin Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781773861821\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.01h x 6.01w x 0.71d","brand":"Anna Byrne","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52933686558901,"sku":"9781773861821","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-last-caravan-the-power-of-community-at-the-end-of-life-9781773861821","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}