The Art Of Saying Goodbye

Ellyn Bache is the author of The Art Of Saying Goodbye. The story revolves around five suburban woman, Iona, Paisley, Julianne, Ginger, and Andrea. Paisley is the lift of the party. She invites her neighbors and their husbands and their children to her house for food and drinks and games. Iona feels out of place because she is thirty years older than the rest of them. Julianne is a nurse with a psychic ability to diagnose patients by feel. When Paisley comes in for a pre-operative examination Julianne touches Paisley's belly and knows she has cancer. As the other women cope with Paisley's upcoming death from metastasized pancreatic cancer they come to realize the importance of female friendships and not to take life for granted. When they learn of Paisley's diagnosis they each tie a huge white ribbon on a tree in their yards. At the funeral these white ribbons decorate the top of Paisley's casket.