About the Author
Maureen Thom has spent her career helping people find the words for things that are hard to say. She began as a journalist in Los Angeles, covering community news and the police beat, where she learned to listen closely, ask the questions that matter, and honor people's stories on the hardest days of their lives. She went on to become a ghostwriter, giving voice to founders and executives during career-defining moments and building storytelling programs for companies in the technology and space industries, including Oracle, Salesforce, and ServiceNow. The Goodbye Manual grew out of that lifetime of work: the belief that with the right words and a clear plan, even the hardest goodbye can be done with love and intention. She holds a B.A. in English from UCLA.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Novato, California, Maureen is a lifelong Marin County local. She lives in Mill Valley with her husband and three daughters and misses her senior rescue soul dog, Koda, every day.
We prepare for almost every major moment in life. When we get married, we have checklists and wedding planners. When we have a baby, we have books, registries, and birth education classes. When we retire, we have financial planners and advisors to guide us through the transition. But when it comes to dying, one of the most profound passages of all, we are often left with only instinct, uncertainty, and silence.
This book is here to help you leave with clarity, and to help your loved ones walk beside you with less fear. It offers structure in a time that often feels shapeless. It cannot remove the pain. But it can ease the confusion. And it can open the door to something deeper: connection, presence, and love.
There is no perfect goodbye. But there can be a good one.
The Goodbye Manual - A Guide for the Dying and Those Who Love Them
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The Goodbye Manual is a guide for people who are dying and for the people who love them. It is practical, offering guidance on finances, final wishes, personal messages, and memorial planning. It is also emotional and spiritual, with conversation prompts, reflections from doctors and chaplains, and lessons from people who have faced death and taught us something about how to live.
You don't need to be a certain kind of person to use this book. You don't need to be religious, or even comfortable talking about death. You only need to be willing to think about what matters and to try to say it while you still can.