I'll Fly Away Book

07/24/2025

New review from City Book Review

What elevates the book is Sapir’s insistence that storytelling itself is care. Through vivid portraits, he restores identity to elders often reduced to diagnoses. The narrative doesn’t shy away from contradictions, hope and despair, autonomy and dependency, comedy and sorrow all live side by side. As Sapir says in the introduction, the book is a story of “bipoles,” of life and death, inseparably bound together.”

In a society that often marginalizes the elderly, I’ll Fly Away is an essential read. It does not offer easy answers but rather opens space for the kind of difficult, necessary conversations about how we age and how we die. And perhaps more importantly, how we live in the space between.

I’ll Fly Away: Sketches from the Center for Elders’ Independence is a profoundly human collection of essays that chronicles the lives and deaths of disabled

06/27/2025

This was such a wonderful evening -- thank you again to everyone who turned up for the Pegasus Books event last week!

06/19/2025

Thanks to everyone who came out for my event at Pegasus Books last night -- packed room, all seats taken, people sitting on the floor. It was heart-warming to see so many people come out for a book about what it's like to age on our own terms. Thank you!

05/03/2025

For teenagers, driving = freedom, and that desire for independence and autonomy, to go wherever you want when you want -- never grows old.

This excerpt from my new book "I'll Fly Away: Stories of Amazing Disabled Elders" shares the driving stories of 5 of the seniors I worked with at the Center for Elders' Independence in Oakland, CA.

Now available on Medium... Please consider buying my book!

Robert, Walter, James, Eva, and Sylvester

05/02/2025

WIN a copy of I'll Fly Away -- enter by tomorrow Saturday May 3 at : https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/409716-i-ll-fly-away-stories-about-amazing-disabled-elders

Enter to win one of 10 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Apr 19-May 03, 2025. Win I'll Fly Away. Be inspired and moved by these essays celebrati...

05/02/2025

I'll Fly Away is an EDITOR'S PICK at Publishers Weekly Book Life!!!

Honored they compared my book to Abraham Verghese’s My Own Country and Lisa Sanders’s Every Patient Tells a Story and gave the cover design and content a grade A.

https://booklife.com/booklife-review/9798990229310

'Sapir’s account of his stint as Medical Director of Oakland, California’s Center for Elders’ Independence (CEI) swells with powerful anecdotes of the program’s participants, aiming for a “bird’s-eye view of death and dying within a supportive community for disabled elders.” Sapir shares both the medical and emotional aspects of elderly patients facing illness, pain, and death, casting their courage and wisdom as inspirational testimony—often in contrast to his own inclinations as a trained physician. Some, like Ara Belle Kingsby, opt out of medical care and request palliative treatment only, while others waver in their decision to die—especially when in great pain.

Of all the moving portraits in the book, several linger: Cornelio, who rejected dialysis and welcomed death; Curtis accidentally setting himself on fire while trying to smoke; Paul Dudock’s yearning for family; Locario’s poignant wish to go back to his home country; Gus, with his beautiful gospel singing voice, irritated when identified by others as white due to his fair complexion, who “liked to wander the highways and byways, without a defined goal”; and Stevie, ever “proud of his days as a hustler and street soul.” Each story affirms Sapir’s opening declaration of the “enriching, surprising, meaningful, and sometimes confounding experiences” he encountered during his time at CEI.

Though his vantage point is that of a physician, Sapir (Déjà Vu with Quixotic Delusions of Grandeur) takes his patients’ lives to heart, illuminating their vitality, self-identities, and personal preferences when it comes to death and dying. Sprinkled amongst his observations on “how deeply human and humane an interdisciplinary team approach to the care of the frail elderly really is” are practical suggestions, such as the need to involve family from the early stages of caregiving. Throughout, Sapir shows a deep appreciation for the volatility of life, reflecting that “if life and death were predictable, life would lose its majesty and quickly get boring.”'

I’ll Fly Away invites readers to delve into the intimate narratives of 40 extraordinary elders, revealing their profound stories of resilience and the vibrant spirit that often persists in the twilight years. This collection not only highlights the challenges faced by aging individuals but also ch...

03/19/2025

Printed advance reading copies -- we will be doing a giveaway soon on Goodreads where readers can win one for themselves!

03/19/2025

Grateful for the positive early reviews from my colleagues - thank you!

03/19/2025

"Could the lives of 40 disabled oldsters in a geriatric program make interesting reading? 'Interesting' is an understatement. These stories are fascinating. From end-of-life tales, demented women engaged in s*x, a man on oxygen lighting himself up with a cigarette, a Mexican American family trying to remove their mother from control by their schizophrenic brother, a 99-year-old couple attempting to drive across the Arizona desert in midsummer without air-conditioning, each person's tale is unique, carefully told by Dr. Marc Sapir who unfolds the complexity and humanity of the program's charges."

—Anthony Somkin MD, medical director RotaCare West Contra Costa

03/19/2025

About the book:

We all hope to grow old with dignity and some joyfulness. The intimate narratives of 40 extraordinary elders shared in I'll Fly Away explore both the challenges of aging and the joys and vibrancy that often persist in the twilight years. Poignant observations of the patients, families, and a team of medical and public health professionals and para-professionals that intersect daily at the Center for Elders' Independence in Oakland, California, reveal the complexities of aging, identity, amid the assertive persistence of the human spirit.

From a couple's summer drive across the Arizona desert to a family's struggle with mental illness to patients' romantic escapades, each tale offers a unique glimpse into the resilience of individuals facing profound transitions and prompts questions about our collective responsibility to our elders.

Though this book is valuable for medical and public health professionals seeking how to best serve their communities and patients, it especially offers families kinship, support, and inspiration for navigating their own situations. For patients and readers in general, I'll Fly Away champions the idea that every one of us is a unique person with needs, wants, and a voice that is discoverable and deserves to be heard.

Full of sometimes unimaginably amusing and amazing tales and endorsed by esteemed colleagues, I'll Fly Away is a memoir and a powerful critique of societal attitudes towards aging. It embodies the notion that every life is a story worth telling, and every voice matters.

Marc Sapir, a retired primary care, geriatric and public health physician, is an essayist and political activist. He was first Medical Director of the Center for Elders' Independence for disabled elders for 9 years. He is author of five plays, and also writes fiction, poetry, and music. He lives in Berkeley, CA.