Support for the Radio West podcast comes from Harmon's Grocery, committed to excellent service and friendly smiles.

Your food is our passion.

In her book, Death Dula, Alaw Arthur gives the job description.

Be well-versed in the practicalities of preparing for death.

Know the bureaucracy and legality surrounding dead bodies.

Sit bedside, hold hands, pay deep attention.

Arthur says at the end of our lives, our bodies give away clues about the type of life we lived.

So her book is about living as much as dying, and it's about

her own life as much as any of the people she helped transition into death. She explains

in the book that for almost nine years she'd been practicing law at the Legal Aid Foundation

in Los Angeles, but she hated it. She'd become deeply depressed. A house guest in her own body is how she describes it.

And not really sure why or what she was looking for, she went to Cuba.

That's where she met Jessica on a bus.

Jessica was 36 and she was German, traveling to see the top six places in the world she wanted to see before she died because she had uterine cancer.

And the ride with her, it was the most valuable conversation I've ever had.

I asked her if she wanted a family.

What got in the way of her having one thus far?

I ask her about her work, her lovers, her dreams, and her sorrows.

Finally, I ask her about the end.

What do you think death will be like?

And it also allowed me to see how hard it was for her to talk about her mortality with other people.

Jessica tells me this is the first time anyone has asked her these questions or wanted to listen to her talk about her death.

...