Screenshot taken from *The Gift* short film.

Video tells an end-of-life love story

By Frank Stirk and ChristianWeek Senior Correspondent | January 23, 2014

HALIFAX, NS—When the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) of Canada first approached Kentville psychologist John Sumarah to share on video how his wife of 36 years slowly succumbed to a terminal illness, he hesitated at first. But he decided to do it as a way to tell others that the way a life ends can be just as beautiful as the way it began.

Released online in November 2013, The Gift can be viewed and downloaded for free on the CMDS website (as well as at the bottom of the article via YouTube embed).

“Even though it was extremely heart-wrenching, even though there were very difficult times, even though John went through a lot of uncertainty and a lot of concern about his wife, still even after all of that, this was for him a gift,” says Larry Worthen, the society’s Halifax-based executive director.

The video is intended for a Christian audience. At only five minutes in length, the hope is that churches will show it during a worship service, and that it would be widely shared among family and friends.

Its website also includes follow-up resources, including a PowerPoint presentation to facilitate a group discussion about the video.

“We were looking for a simple way to get across a message of the sanctity of life especially around end-of-life issues,” says Worthen. “We thought … a short video that that might be a really effective way of doing that.”

Catherine McNally, a palliative care physician and CMDS member, suggested they approach Sumarah. His wife, Colleen, died in December 2012 after being diagnosed five months earlier with a rare and untreatable form of cancer.

Because of her severely weakened immune system, Sumarah was only able to leave their home twice in those five months. And yet he found that caring for his dying wife was not a burden but rather a time that both of them could value and treasure.

“We wanted to live it out as long as we could and as well as we could,” Sumarah says in the video, “and allow God to determine that time [of death] and not us, because we might make a mistake.”

“To walk with a loved one through the dying process is a loving choice,” says James Mallon, the priest of Saint Benedict Roman Catholic Parish in Halifax and the video’s executive producer.

“As people of faith, we don’t cling to this life. This life is not an absolute good in and of itself. We’re supposed to die. It’s part of our journey to the Lord. It’s part of the plan.”

But The Gift also appeals to viewers to urge federal Justice Minister Peter McKay to uphold assisted death as a crime in Canada, especially given Quebec’s bid to legalize it.

Mallon’s production company, JPII Media Institute, is currently discussing with the CMDS about creating a second video on the sanctity of life that targets non-Christians.

“We need to get the message out to non-Christians and in a language that secular people can understand,” he says, “because as soon as people see the message dressed up in faith, then a certain portion of people will just turn it off.”

Watch The Gift here: