Mrs. Hunter's Happy Death

by John Fanestil

The literature on dying is filled with talk of anger and forgiveness, peace and acceptance -- but nowhere has anyone written about the spirit of happiness and holiness that John Fanestil sometimes witnessed in his work as a pastor. There was Nancy, smiling as she actually served cookies and tea to her friends from her hospice bed, just a few days before her death. There was Jillian, who died singing her favorite hymn and whispering the Lord's Prayer -- her son would later say his mother's death was the most beautiful moment of his life. Then one day, in a seminary library, Fanestil chanced upon some stories of "happy deaths" from the 18th and 19th centuries. He was particularly struck by an account, based on a private journal, of a young woman identified as "Mrs. Hunter" who died in London from an unidentified illness at age 26. "That day in the library, I found in the language of a bygone generation the same spirit I had witnessed" in the dying people to whom he had ministered. Now, in Mrs. Hunter's Happy Death: Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die, Pastor Fanestil revives this lost wisdom about "happy dying" in order to answer for today's Christians questions such as:

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• What is the secret of people who die contented and fulfilled?

• What makes it possible for them to attain such spiritual heights as they approach their physical demise?

• What enables them to make death a completion of life, rather than a tragic end?

• And what can they teach us about life and death, love and loss, grief and spiritual growth?

As Pastor Fanestil explains, "happy dying" was a ritualized way of dying practiced widely for generations - and in fact for centuries across the history of the Christian church. Rooted in the paradoxically good news of Christ's death on the cross, this ritual encouraged those who practiced it to seek an experience of God's grace - what today we would call a "spiritual high" - enabling them to transcend the pain and suffering and grief that come with death.

In part one of the book, Pastor Fanestil introduces you to the ritual of happy dying by walking you through the historical account of Mrs. Hunter's death, shedding light on the history of this remarkable approach to the end of life. At each step he shares the stories of people he now knows to be Mrs. Hunter's spiritual heirs.

In Part Two, he explores the spiritual practices that are the foundation for a happy death. Presented as "Ten Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die," these chapters show that Mrs. Hunter's preparations for death - prayer, reflection, loving God and neighbor, and so on - have their roots deep in the history of Christianity. He also shares the stories of people he has seen put these lessons into practice.

"TRULY INSPIRATIONAL"

"Mrs. Hunter's Happy Death deserves, and will delight, a wide readership. Very few authors could pull off such a tour de force where history, theology, spirituality, and pastoral care sit so cozily within the covers of a single book." -Leonard Sweet, author of Out of the Question ... Into the Mystery

"In an era in which death often stalks a patient long before overtaking them, this book serves as a manual as well as an inspiration. Not since the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross three decades ago has there been such a seminal work in the field." -Dr. Robert W. Edgar, National Council of Churches USA

"More than an engaging and creative treatment of death. It is a ringing affirmation of life lived with faith, love, joy, and hope." - Bishop Kenneth L. Carder, Duke University Divinity School

"Happiness in dying is the admixture of joy and contentment, which finds expression in words or gestures of gratitude and praise. It is this final act of faithful living that Fanestil discerns and documents so convincingly from his pastoral experience. Mrs. Hunter's Happy Death bears witness to happy death as present reality. It testifies not only to a death that has lost its sting, but to a life that is no longer haunted by the prospect of having to die." -Wallace M. Alston, director, Center of Theological Inquiry

"Plumbs the depths of life's greatest mystery and offers hope through the experience of a woman who had learned the art of dying well. Truly inspirational." -Dr. Paul Wesley Chilcote, author of Changed from Glory into Glory