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New Book Compiled from Personal Journal of ALS Patient Featured in New York Times

(Nashville, TN)–A special interactive section on the New York Times website known as Healthguide Patient Voices features an interview with Beth Chilcoat, widow of David Chilcoat who died of ALS (a.k.a. as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2006. Beth’s story is one of only six interviews conducted with ALS patients and family members for the Healthguide Patient Voices: ALS feature. Beth recently compiled the new book, NOBODY TELLS A DYING GUY TO SHUT UP, from her husband’s personal journal kept during his three-year struggle with the disease that eventually took his life. (LINK: NY Times Patient Voices)

Mentioned in the New York Times piece, NOBODY TELLS A DYING GUY TO SHUT UP takes the reader from David Chilcoat’s diagnosis (“Today we really got a kick in the shorts”) to the end (“Needless to say, I was confused. At times, when things do not make sense, it is hard to know what is really true.”). After grieving for her husband for over a year, Beth made the decision to take David’s 1000-plus page journal and edit it into book form to aid other families who may be going through a similar crisis.

“The book is only able to include a small fraction of the moment by moment answers to prayers that we experienced as we tried to leave this horror in God’s hands and trust Him to give us what we needed,” says Beth. “David kept his journal online and it helped so much to hear people’s reactions and encouragement. At first, we appreciated the fact that we could see God using our pain for good as it seemed to encourage and challenge other people’s faith. Then one day, it dawned on us how much we were being strengthened by the need to focus on what God was doing in our lives in order to write weekly about our journey.”

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