For twelve-year-old Catholic school kid Albert Davidson, skateboarding in the hills and parks of San Francisco provides a sense of freedom and adventure to an otherwise cautious lifestyle. He's always been one to keep things steady and under tight control (even if he has to tell the occasional lie to do so). This careful approach to life is turned upside down when his mom is diagnosed with cancer. Even as Albert struggles to keep things normal by hanging out with his two best friends, his life continues to be full of surprises. While hiking one day near Lands End, he jumps into dangerous waters to rescue a dying shark-an act that is recorded by onlookers. Videos of the bold act soon go viral, and Albert becomes an internet celebrity overnight. His newfound popularity launches an unusual quest for healing, fueled by his mom's intensifying battle and Albert's determination to find a cure. A quieter adventure unfolds with the boys and a mysterious stranger, whose unsafe circumstances lead Albert to double down on his secrets and lies. With problems escalating all around him, will Albert find the remedies he so desperately seeks?

A moving exploration of families facing death, in the voices of those affected in one rural corner of Portugal.

This book presents an opportunity for you to make informed preparations for death that are guided by your knowledge and faith. This book includes information about living wills, durable powers of attorney for health care and for financial management, and wills. You will also find consumer information regarding funerals, burial and cremation, and an outline of the church's funeral rite. On the pages provided, individuals can record their wishes and preparations that have been made. A great basis for parish-wide workshops during the month of November.

1967. Rigby John Kluesener stands in the moonlight, a flower in his hair, his thumb out trying to hitch a ride on the road to San Francisco. The story of how he came to be there - of an adolescence spent on his parents' farm in Nowheresville, Idaho, of his father's misanthropy, his mother's strict Catholicism - is utterly real and totally unforgettable.

Billy Malsavage, a young aide, is shocked at the scared look in twelve-year-old Ricky's eyes when the boy is wheeled into B Ward, victim of a serious brain injury suffered in a football game. Ricky can't walk or talk, but his intelligence is unaffected. Buddy also feels sorry for Ricky. A fifty-four-year-old man with cerebral palsy, he too is trapped in a body that doesn't work well, but his mind is fine. As the months pass, the three grow closer. Billy has his own inner demons, but does what he can to make Ricky feel better, less scared, among the residents of the ward, most of whom have severe or profound mental retardation. He reads to Ricky and Buddy and shows Laurel and Hardy movies. Buddy does what he can to befriend Ricky. As Ricky weakens and his physical condition worsens, he turns to his Catholic faith for solace. But can his faith help him in his desperation? Can anything? This is a novel about three isolated people who struggle to connect with others and to find some meaning, and maybe even salvation, in their lives. Billy, who has been working in B Ward for about a year, right after graduating from high school, is a reclusive loner who left home and his "whacko" parents as soon as he could. Buddy lived on the farm with his folks and then with just his brother and sister-in-law until they could no longer care for him and he had to be institutionalized. He hates enduring the indignities of being helpless, and longs for heaven. Ricky, until his terrible accident, was a normal kid living at home with his parents and sisters, playing sports and hanging out with his friends. At first, Ricky finds many of the residents bizarre or frightening. There's Gramps, the oldest person with Down syndrome in the state, and his twisted-up little friend Timmy, who spend most of each day holding hands. There's sullen Arnie, who always wears his stars and stripes hard hat and studies lingerie catalogs. There's annoying Larry the Whacker and little Davey, who scoots around the floor on his back and dusts the legs of cribs with a washcloth. But as time goes on, Ricky grows more used to them. When Ricky's condition takes a turn for the worse, Buddy and Billy feel helpless and worried. Will he get better? What if he doesn't? In his lonely hospital room, Ricky silently says his prayers and misses his friends. Now and at the Hour is Marty Drapkin's first published work of fiction. He's written and published nonfiction books and articles in his professional field, having to do with county jail operations. He is a self-described faceless bureaucrat laboring unappreciated for an obscure state government agency-the proverbial man in the gray flannel suit, leading a life of quiet desperation. Marty and his wife, Erica, live in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, with a motley crew of dogs and cats, all of whom have issues. He has a grown daughter who lives in Seattle and doesn't mind the rain. Cover art by Lynn Wells

We can be certain that the body does not survive death. Once the heart stops circulating blood, the brain is no longer nourished and begins to decay. On the basis of medical evidence it would seem that, within a quarter of an hour, the personality is irreparably destroyed and the individual ceases to exist. But now there is mounting scientific evidence for a life after death. In At the Hour of Death, veteran psychical researchers Karlis Osis, Ph.D and Erlendur Haraldsson, Ph.D collated compelling evidence that suggests we, as conscious beings, do survive physical death. This book is the product of extensive interviews of over 1,000 doctors and nurses who have been present when cases of "post-mortem existence" have occurred. Extensive computer analyses of their observations have been made. The results are reported in this first truly scientific investigation of the experiences of the dying at the hour of death. What these doctors and nurses have witnessed cannot be explained away by medical, psychological, cultural, or other conditioning. Yet it may answer the fundamental question of human existence. "Finally, a book that probes death and dying with modern research techniques. Osis and Haraldsson present compelling evidence that the deathbed is the gateway to another existence. The visions of the dying appear to be not hallucinations but glimpses through the windows of eternity." -Alan Vaughan, editor of New Realities Magazine "A major contribution to the scientific study of the question of post-mortem existence. -Raymond A. Moody, M.D., author of Life After Life.