余生第一年 – Until I Say Good-Bye: A Book About Living by Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter

苏珊•斯宾塞•温德尔曾是美国佛罗里达州的著名记者。但2011 年夏天，45岁的她被诊断出患了肌萎缩症（ALS）。绝症一点点吞噬她的生活能力，瘫痪她的一切，甚至连说话也越来越不清楚。在生命尽头，她选择与自己最亲爱的人一起旅行，并用全身唯一能动的右手拇指，在iPhone上一字一句敲下了她生命中最美好的一年：

与相识34年的挚友南希踏上育空极光之旅；

与丈夫约翰在结婚20周年纪念日回到婚姻生活的起点布达佩斯；

去塞浦路斯寻找亲生母亲；

陪9岁的儿子韦斯利去海湾，圆他亲吻海豚的梦想；

与14岁的女儿前往纽约挑选婚纱——为了未来她没机会参加的婚礼……

这是一场最美丽的道别。在所余有限的生命里，苏珊勇敢地为所爱之人留下最美好的回忆，并用诙谐幽默的笔调记录生活、享受生活。她的爱丰富了这个世界，也让我们更懂得珍惜现在所拥有的一切。

In June 2011, Susan Spencer-Wendel learned she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—Lou Gehrig’s disease—an irreversible condition that systematically destroys the nerves that power the muscles. She was forty-four years old, with a devoted husband and three young children, and she had only one year of health remaining.

Susan decided to live that year with joy.

She quit her job as a journalist and spent time with her family. She built an outdoor meeting space for friends in her backyard. And she took seven trips with the seven most important people in her life. As her health declined, Susan journeyed to the Yukon, Hungary, the Bahamas, and Cyprus. She took her sons to swim with dolphins, and her teenage daughter, Marina, to Kleinfeld’s bridal shop in New York City to see her for the first and last time in a wedding dress.

She also wrote this book. No longer able to walk or even to lift her arms, she tapped it out letter by letter on her iPhone using only her right thumb, the last finger still working.

However, Until I Say Good-Bye is not angry or bitter. It is sad in parts—how could it not be?—but it is filled with Susan’s optimism, joie de vivre, and sense of humor. It is a book about life, not death. One that, like Susan, will make everyone smile.

From the Burger King parking lot where she cried after her diagnosis to a snowy hot spring near the Arctic Circle, from a hilarious family Christmas disaster to the decrepit monastery in eastern Cyprus where she rediscovered her heritage, Until I Say Good-Bye is not only Susan Spencer-Wendel’s unforgettable gift to her loved ones—a heartfelt record of their final experiences together—but an offering to all of us: a reminder that “every day is better when it is lived with joy.”

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