Stone Path Press

11/15/2025

Choosing to Die: A Daughter's Story of Supporting Her Mother's End of Life Through Assisted Death. AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!!

AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER ON AMAZON, TERTULIA, BARNES & NOBLE, BOOKSHOP.ORG

11/15/2025

Choosing to Die: A daughter's Story of Supporting Her Mother's End of Life Through Assisted Death.

11/06/2025

There is a lot going on “behind the scenes” with Choosing to Die almost ready for pre-order! Honestly, I am finding this entire part of the process a might bit tedious. I just want to write. I am blessed to have an amazing human being with years of publishing experience helping me with all of this and it still feels a bit overwhelming.

This week I have an ask for all of you who have been supporting me and cheering me on. Do you have any connections with any of the following individuals or organizations that you might connect me with? I am ready to send out advance reader only copies in search of endorsements to help with publicity. Cold calls have been, well cold… and I’m looking for some warmer ones !!

Organizations:

Compassion and Choices

Death with Dignity

Association for Death Education and Counseling

American Medical Student Association

American Medical Women’s Association

American Public Health Association

National Association of Social Workers

International End of Life Doula Association

Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine

Individuals:

Alua Arthur – Author of Briefly Perfectly Human

Sebastian Junger – Author of In My Time of Dying

Robin Wall Kimmerer - Author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Anita Hannig -– Author of The Day I Die

Or, you may have another credible contact that you feel might be interested in reading and endorsing Choosing to Die? Bloggers, Podcasters, Authors, Educators. I would so appreciate any connections you can think of.…

Thank you again for your support! Contributions are still welcome and will help with the audio book which I will record in December.

10/31/2025

Words Count!

Sorting through my desk this morning I found some notes I had written at least 10 years ago. At that time I was traveling domestically and internationally teaching a movement modality. I was mentoring and teaching students who had invested a good chunk of time and money for their learning. I was aware of the paradigm - there is that which we know and there is that which we don’t know. I used this in my teaching. These two concepts are pretty easy to comprehend.

Many of the students I taught came with already rich bodies of knowledge and experience in various methods of movement. The challenge for them was to show up with beginners mind for the new learning. This mindset required an understanding that there is also a vast space that is filled with that which we don’t know, we don’t know…. I think this space is where the mystery and the magic resides.

I wanted my words to count - to be worthy of the investment these students had made. I started working with a coach who skillfully guided me to explore that which I didn’t know I didn’t know. I had written on the inside cover of my notebook “Will the story I am sharing further the lesson I am teaching?” The difference between sharing what I wanted to say versus speaking what they needed to hear.

Now I have written a book! Talk about investing in words. I have put about 45,000 of them together to tell a story that I think could bring anyone who reads it into the realm of that which we don’t know, we don’t know. How do we show up for someone at the end of their life? Do we impose our wants and needs on them at this extremely emotional time or can we enter the space with beginners mind?

Assisted death is a pretty big ask for any of us to navigate. Filled with that which we don’t know we don’t know. I know it sure was for me. I hope the words in Choosing to Die cause you to wonder about the miracle of leaving your physical body or being present for someone who is leaving their physical body. I hope my words start conversations that explore stepping into the realm of magic and mystery.

Next week I will have lots of news to share about preordering and how you can help me with endorsements. I will be reaching out for people who know people… I will be looking for readers who are willing to read and then write reviews. I will be reaching out for help in stepping into the mystery.

Have a magical week,

Theresa

10/23/2025

Thank you all for taking a moment to send your love. We're quietly noticing the space Lucy occupied in our lives and letting our hearts find a permanent resting place for her memories.❤️

10/21/2025

Yesterday I took my sweet dog Lucy to our Vet. As we stared into each others big brown eyes, she quietly left her body. It was fast and it was peaceful. Her little paws were already cooling when we got there. Her heart no longer able to pump blood efficiently. She was 8 weeks when I brought her home and we had 12 precious, glorious, full years together.

She was my hiking companion. I called her my easy dog. She was always content and happy. She had deep brown soulful eyes and she would stare at me as if looking right into my soul. Her only demand was that she be in my presence whenever I was home. She wasn’t a barker. She didn’t even require a lot of attention. She just needed me to see her.

As I drove home from the Vets, I had that same feeling I remembered experiencing in the days after Mom left. Is it really possible to feel so much sensation at once? I decided to really sink into it. I tried to find words to describe it: hot, prickly, searing… Was my heart actually capable of carrying this much? It felt like it was going to crack open. I did a review. Had I done my best with Lucy? I was glad I had taken her to the beach last Sunday even though I was so tired from work. I decided she had lived a pretty good life. Full of love and walks and treats and running the beach.

I spent the afternoon beginning the process of putting my garden to rest for the season. I let my tears flow and let nature remind me of the cycles of birth and death. Pete and I picked out a spot where we will let Lucy’s ashes rest. Her headstone will be a blazing red maple tree.

10/02/2025

Journal entry from Choosing to Die
September 25, 2020. “Mom is still full of bits and pieces of information she wants to pass on to us before she leaves. We are experiencing some lovely warm late September days. Tonight, I could tell Mom was tired and ready for bed, but she insists on waiting for the night sky to show me the beauty of her moonflowers. There are so many mother-seeds she wants to plant before she leaves her body, and communication between us becomes an ethereal sensing we will learn to trust over time. I know her sense of urgency because I feel it also.
I have resisted the urge to coddle her. Some days I think how auspicious it would be if she stepped into the garden and keeled over. That would be OK—even better than MAID. I have already formulated a plan … no CPR, call my sisters, hold her… but what if she’s not all the way dead? My secret wish is that she will die on her own before her birthday. If that’s in her garden, all the better. Fifty-one days until November 15. “
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Thank you for supporting this project. I believe in it more than ever. We are ready for these conversations - even if it feels like we are not. Dying is inevitable. What would it be like if we gave how we die - the same attention as we give - how we live?

09/18/2025

Excerpt from Choosing to Die
Today started out tough. Events occurred which are not even important to remember. What is important is that we all stayed and showed up. My sisters, my mom, and I sat in four corners of the living room at an impasse. “If you girls don’t get along and straighten this out, I am going to call the doctor and move everything up to this week,” declared Mom. I looked at her—actually I glared at her. OK … all cards were on the table. “You can’t threaten us with your assisted death, Mom.”
There are times when it is more than difficult to stay present. Times when we are 100% sure we are right… we feel it in every cell of our being - and we may be right, but this “rightness” is also the fuel that can propel us to a dead stop. When we dig our heels in and insist on getting our way we end any meaningful dialogue. We are no longer in relationship with another. We are in relationship only with ourself. We become frozen in our “rightness.” Our “rightness” is so loud we are unable to hear or see or feel anything around us.
I am so glad we all chose to stay present for Mom’s final 3 months. There were incredibly hard moments and there were beautiful soft moments. Had any one of us not been there, it would not have been the same. We were all needed for this moment. This photo was taken the morning Mom died. I see only love.

09/12/2025

I am excited to share my first endorsement with all of you! Peter Norvid, M.D. specialized in Geriatrics, Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine before retiring from Loyola University Medical Center. We sat down for lunch last week and engaged in a hearty discussion around the complex issues that can arise at the end of life given the array of medical interventions that are available these days.

“Choosing to Die is Theresa Evan’s inspirational and powerful exploration of her mother’s choice to end her life using physician assistance.

She made the choice to die on her own terms, in her own home with her family at her side creating beautiful memories up to the last day of her life.

As a geriatrician and certified hospice provider for over 20 years, I have seen first hand the necessary components of “a good death”.

Theresa takes us on a soulful journey with her family using her mother’s garden as a vibrant metaphor of life. She is exploring a topic which is uncomfortable for many, but in desperate need of being addressed with openness, honesty and compassion.

Choosing to Die teaches us that all living beings who have managed to endure life’s many ups and downs can find solace in knowing that with the proper plans in place a “good death” is indeed possible.”

Peter Norvid, MD

Endorsements give a book credibility. If someone whose work we respect endorses a project, an element of trust in the project begins to be built. This is where networking is invaluable. If any of you have contacts in the fields of hospice, death doulas, MAiD or palliative care please consider connecting us. I would love to connect with Alua Arthur. She has written a brilliant book “Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End.” I highly recommend it.

Thank you for contributing to this project. I appreciate and value your faith in me and this important book. Please consider a contribution if you can.

Have a lovely week!

07/08/2025

Autonomy involves more than the ability to make a choice. It includes the ability to act on that choice.

Mom once said to me “Old people are invisible.

06/24/2025

Check out my new post! Let’s start a conversation about what a “good death” might look like. I believe it must include choice. True choice can only be made with knowledge. Knowledge comes with education. Education grows through conversations.

06/17/2025

I hope my writing will gently nudge you towards important conversations about how we live and how we die. Please share and help me get the word out about this important book.

Introduction