Dying in the Red Chair

Is it bravery or cowardice to hasten death when one has no hope of living? Is it selfish or selfless to avoid the inevitable decline and dependence at the end of life? And is it a sin?

Alone in her beautiful home in the woods, a newly widowed woman wrestles with these questions, knowing only that "the silence in the room was nothing like a silence she had ever known."

Dying in the Red Chair follows the decades-long relationship between Etta, a slightly scattered obstetrician and Arnie, a pragmatic ER doctor, as they build a life, a family and medical careers in rural Kentucky. When Arnie is diagnosed with a terminal disease, his lifelong belief in controlling the timing of his own death becomes an imminent reality. To honor the man she loves, Etta must navigate her grief, her strict religious upbringing, and the legal complexities in order to support his choice of using Medical Aid in Dying.

Shifting gracefully from the chaotic, high-stakes emergency bays of a rural hospital to the quiet sanctuary of the Appalachian woods, this poignant novel explores life, medicine, and mortality. In a powerful narrative twist-reflecting how we can never truly know another's mind- the story is told from everyone's perspective except the dying man's. Through Etta and her daughter's eyes, Dying in the Red Chair delivers a heartbreaking yet ultimately healing exploration of what it means to love and let go.