Janis Amatuzio - Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living from a Forensic Pathologist

P RAISE FOR F OREVER O URS

As a forensic pathologist, Dr. Janis Amatuzio looks death in the eye every day, and she has come away from this confrontation with a message of promise and hope. Her vision is a stark contrast to the dismal pronouncements of modern science that death is the end of everything. Forever Ours is the only book I know that finds buoyant, optimistic meaning in the morgue. It could be written only by a physician of uncommon vision, who, although she attends to dead bodies, is a healer.

Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Beyond the Body and
Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine

This book reveals to us those experiences, glorious and uplifting, which science cannot explain. Their tales ring with faith that death is not the end, and we await with wonder.

John I. Coe, MD,
former Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner

Dr. Amatuzio, often called the compassionate coroner, is an exemplar for the compassionate practice of forensic medicine. Forever Ours has much to teach us about healing, loving, and the deep connections with our loved ones.

Kathleen McMonigal, MD
pathologist, Aerospace Medicine, Houston

Gently crafted stories offer comfort and healing balm to those whose hearts have been shattered with the loss of loved ones.

Anoka County Union

Beyond Knowing is a book of real-life mystery stories beautifully written by a physician trained in the hard science of forensic pathology. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered if science has defined life too narrowly and asked themselves What if... ? I simply love this book.

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom
and My Grandfathers Blessings and clinical professor of
family medicine, UCSF School of Medicine

If you want to open your mind, read this book and truly begin the journey of life, which does not end with death.

Dr. Bernie S. Siegel, author of 365 Prescriptions for the Soul

Heres a puzzle for you: How did a respected pathologist, who deals with autopsies, dead bodies, and mortal remains, come to believe were all immortal, right now? To her courage in standing up for this vision this truth of who we are, I bow deeply.

Larry Dossey, MD, author of
The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

In this latest work, Dr. Amatuzio opens the mysterious interface between life and death. Carefully dissecting stories told to her by families and friends of the newly dead, this consummate investigator uncovers rich insights that heal the heart and illuminate the spirit. With kindness and candor, the compassionate coroner translates these extraordinary death narratives into lessons for the living.

Kathleen McMonigal, MD,
pathologist, Aerospace Medicine, Houston

As a physician, forensic pathologist, and coroner for several Minnesota counties, I have had the extraordinary privilege of caring for families and their loved ones when death comes suddenly, unexpectedly, or traumatically. My job is to speak for the dead, to solve the mystery of What happened? However, I have occasionally been faced with mysteries I cannot solve or explain. These experiences always baffle me, partly because as a scientist I seek to reach a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a rational explanation. But I have come to realize that for some experiences there is no explanation, just a deep knowing that I have encountered the Divine.

JANIS AMATUZIO, MD

New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949

Copyright 2002, 2004 by Janis Amatuzio

Page 199, Ascension, by Coleen Cora Hitchcock, copyright 1987, reprinted by permission of the author.

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers Author photograph on page 205 by Michael Crouser

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Amatuzio, Janis.

Forever ours : real stories of immortality and living from a forensic pathologist / Janis Amatuzio.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57731-481-6 (hardcover. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-57731-599-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. DeathReligious aspects. 2. Amatuzio, Janis. 3. Forensic pathologistsUnited StatesBiography. 4. PhysiciansUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

BL504A47 2004

155-937dc22

2004009701

First paperback printing, July 2007

ISBN-10: 1-57731-599-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-57731-599-5

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

A proud member of the Green Press Initiative

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

M y mother, my great encourager and supporter, listened patiently as I read her the last chapter of this book, and she did what every daughter prays for at such a moment. She cried and then looked at me with an expression of such admiration and pride. As my mother gave me this gift, she asked a question that would give me one more. She said, Janis, its just beautiful, but tell me something for whom did you write this book and, more importantly, why?