Dear Readers,

Thank you, thank you, for reading Lissa's blog and taking her into your hearts. Her act of writing became a sharing of her soul's journey, and she was ever grateful for the audience that helped draw her into further explorations.

However, I must tell you that Lissa passed away last Saturday, November 9th. As she weakened, we moved her from her napping bed in the living room to a small room above her cherished patio, festooned with windows that hugged her. As friends visited, she rallied to give a hug and her loving smile, then slept peacefully until the next visit. We created an art room in the living room so that all family and friends could create some type of art (and all types there were!) to ease her transition and to express their love. At the end, Lissa was resting peacefully and without pain, surrounded by her beloved family, Chip, Will, Katie, Alice, and me, who hung the art around her, read her favorite poems and loved her hard.  I promise, we did.

I thought you might like to see that wonderful room and art as well as all the poetry books and Laurel yearbooks that friends have sent over the past few months. We still felt her presence here!

 But most of all, I want you to remember Lissa like this:

 A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights, OH, at 2pm.  Below, please read the obituary from The Plain Dealer.

Sincerely,
Brent McKinley
November 14, 2013

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--> Elizabeth “Lissa” Dorr McKinley, MD, MPH, age 53 of Cleveland Hts., OH, passed away on Saturday, November 9, 2013.  Beloved wife of Robert “Chip” Gilkeson, MD; loving mother of William Rowland Gilkeson and Katherine Merrick Gilkeson; dear daughter of Alice McKinley and the late Rowland P. McKinley, Jr.; dear sister of Brent McKinley (Richard Levitt) of Stamford, CT; beloved aunt to six nieces and nephews, and cherished friend.  Her long, personal engagement with cancer informed her evolving sense of empathy in medicine and encouraged her “to teach and model humanism in patient care,” particularly of cancer patients. She spoke nationally and internationally on these subjects, helped to create a curriculum reflecting humanism at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine as well as at The Gathering Place. Lissa has been recognized as a superlative doctor, teacher, and human: the Blackwell Society at Case was renamed the Blackwell-McKinley Society in her honor; she was selected by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as an Honorable Supporter of Breast Cancer Awareness (2006); she was awarded the Kaiser-Permanente Award for Excellence in Teaching at CWRU School of Medicine (2010) and the Clifford J. Vogt, MD ’34 Alumni Service Award (2012); and she was chosen as a Distinguished Alumna (2008) of Laurel School. Personally, when her disease entered a new phase in 2006, she began a blog, “Saving My Life: One Poem at a Time,” that has inspired many with her poetry, loving observations on life and family, and candid explorations of her experiences. In her memory, the family prefers that those who wish may make contributions in her name to Hospice of the Western Reserve, 17876 St. Clair Ave, Cleveland, OH 44110, or The Gathering Place, 23300 Commerce Park, Beachwood, Ohio 44122.  A Memorial Service will be held at Fairmount Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, at 2pm.