What if you died tomorrow?

By Jeff Walker
Features Editor

San Marcos November 15, 2007 10:46 am

— Joe O’ Connell began volunteering at the Christopher House, an in-facility hospice home in Austin, to research for a mystery novel he was working on. He left being taught “what it means to be a human being.”
The Texas State University graduate and author of “Evacuation Plan” spent three months talking to hospice patients and their families. The conversations he shared with them and the ideas it evoked inspired his newest book release — a fictional novel based loosely on the people he met at the Christopher House.
“We need to live in the moment,” O’Connell said. “How would you live your life differently if you knew you were going to die in the next couple of days?... I wanted to tell the story of the place, what brings someone to become a hospice nurse, and also, what it’s like for the family of someone who is dying.”
O’Connell will be reading from and signing copies of his book at the Annual Texas Author Day Sunday at the San Marcos Public Library. He will join 22 other local authors from 2 to 5 p.m. in an event meant to promote the work of authors in and around Hays County.
O’Connell said that at the Christopher House, employees use a dry erase board for their patients because most of them only last a week or so there. But he bonded with a woman who lived there for three months, and his relationship with her got his mind rolling on the idea for the book.
He started by writing poetry. Slowly, he said he began to adapt the poetry into a novel form.
“I teach creative writing (at St. Edwards University). It’s a multi genre course that is creative non fiction, poetry and dramatic screen play. My book fits all of those in one way or another,” O’Connell said.
With “Evacuation Plan,” O’Connell also wanted to pay tribute to hospice employees as well as the families surrounding the dying patient. He notes that a neighbor of his in Austin recently died in his home and was alone at the time. That wouldn’t be the case with hospice, O’Connell says.
“That’s not to say it’s all roses,” O’Connell said. “In the book, the character bonds with an older man and the man’s family. They’ve got all the disfunction as any other family. But (with hospice) it’s not a depressing thing. It’s an affirming thing for people at the end of their life to be in charge of the experience.”

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