As an expert in chronic illness, author Pamala D. Larsen thought she understood what her patients and families with chronic illness were experiencing. When her husband, Randy, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, however, she realized how little she knew. In Finding a Way through Cancer, Dying, and Widowhood: A Memoir, she presents her journal of dealing with her husband's cancer-from the first day of diagnosis, through eighteen months of illness, hospice care, his death, and her first long year of widowhood.

Providing an honest view of those experiences, Larsen shares thoughts...