What Really Matters is the Heart (A Psychologist Grieves the Death of His Mother)

Maggie Hampshire, RN, BSN, OCN
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: November 1, 2001

Author: Philip Ruiz Belzunce, Ph.D.
Publisher: Bella-Tierra International Publishing
(440) 327-8140 or (440) 331-3259 (fax)
Bella Tierra International
34100 Center Ridge road
Ridgeville, OH 44039-3200

ISBN: 0-9661666-0-4

OncoLink Rating:

Philip R. Belzunce is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and the son of Virginia and Filipe Belzunce. This book is the intensely spiritual journey of a man who found himself challenged on every level of his being during his mother's suffering and death from cancer.

In the introduction, Dr. Belzunce shares the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness that he experienced the day his mother slipped into a coma and her death was imminent. It was then that he realized "That the path to healing required allowing [himself] to be fully immersed in the experience". The author decided then to begin this journal to assist others in their inescapable journeys through loss and healing.

"What Really Matters is the Heart" is an account of one man's raw and painful grieving experiences. Written with the awareness and wisdom that can come only through such personal experience, the book is meant to serve as both a requiem for his mother and a guide for others experiencing these intense emotions. Although the authors' experience is heavily centered in the Filipino /Catholic point of view this should not be allowed cloud the reader's perception of the message that through the grieving process one should eventually be able to celebrate the life of a lost loved one.

"What Really Matters is the Heart" is an outstanding book that is certain to be a source strength and inspiration to loved ones, friends of cancer patients and others suffering from terminal illnesses who find themselves searching for meaning in an unspeakable inevitable loss.