Reflections of a Loving Partner: Caregiving at the End of Life

Reflections of a Loving Partner is the intimate story of two devoted partners confronting the challenges of a terminal diagnosis. Author C. Andrew Martin’s world was shattered when his life partner, Gil, was diagnosed with AIDS. This eloquent memoir shares their love story, unveiling the burdens and the joys of the caregiving journey. Andrew chose to become Gil’s caregiver. To prepare for what lay ahead, Andrew enrolled in hospice volunteer training, learning lessons to guide him through the medical, emotional, spiritual, and legal hazards of caregiving. Now a registered nurse and leader in the field of hospice and palliative care, Andrew has turned his personal experience into his life’s work, sharing with others the valuable lessons he learned. Andrew shows us that when we are open to its possibilities, the loving and selfless act of being a caregiver for someone who is at the end of life can teach us just as much about living as about dying.

C. Andrew Martin has a passion for both hospice education and quality care. He began his hospice association in 1993 as a volunteer, and is now a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse at Beacon Hospice, Inc., in Boston. He has achieved Level II Designee of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Hospice Manager Development Program (2007). He is also an approved educator by both the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Training Program (2006) and the Hospice and Palliative Nurse Association Clinical Review Trainer Program (2007). As an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Hampshire (2007-2008), Boston College (2010), and Saint Joseph’s College of Maine (2010), he taught the Death & Dying and Palliative Practicum courses to the next generation of healthcare professionals.