Meet the Authors
What do you say when someone you love is dying? In this compassionate episode, Judy Oskam speaks with Dr. Maureen Keeley of Texas State about navigating end-of-life conversations.
About Maureen Keeley
Maureen Keeley has been a Professor at Texas State University (TXST) for the past thirty years. For almost four decades she has been teaching, researching, and writing about the verbal and nonverbal communication in family and close relationships, with a goal of improving peoples’ lives and relationships.
Twenty-six years ago, Maureen’s mom was dying from cancer and, while her family and she surrounded her with love and care at the end of her life, they weren’t sure how to talk with her or what they wanted her to say to them. Maureen went looking for answers and found nothing, because no one had asked family members about their conversations with their dying loved ones, so researching communication at the end of life became her life’s work.
Specifically, she has focused on communication at the end of life between family members and their loved ones who are terminally ill. In addition to her co-authored book “Final Conversations” with Julie Yingling in 2007, she has published dozens of research articles and book chapters; as well as given numerous workshops and presentations on the topic.
When her dad died a few years ago, she and her family were now very comfortable with how to talk with him, leaving nothing left unsaid. Maureen lives with her husband Mark and their dog Boo in Central Texas, and they have two grown children, Ian and Meagan, who live nearby. When not teaching or writing, she loves spending time with her friends and family talking and laughing under her pergola.
About Julie Yingling
Julie Yingling is a writer, painter, gardener, and professor emerita from Cal Poly Humboldt. For twenty-five years, she taught, researched, and wrote about children’s communication and interaction across the lifespan. As an academic, she published research articles, texts, and book chapters.
Near the end of Julie’s career, Maureen wanted a partner on a passion project and asked her to collaborate on exploring people’s conversations with dying loved ones. Julie missed the opportunity to be with her father when he died because she couldn’t get to him in time when weather delayed her flight. This project gave her the opportunity to reflect on all the correspondence and visits they shared during his last year of life.
After some consideration, Julie realized that she had the opportunity to continue her life’s work by now exploring the other end of the life spectrum—the communication during the shutting down of life rather than the growing up. As they worked together to understand the information from their first set of interviews, they found they collaborated well and enjoyed each other’s company. So, when Maureen asked her again in 2022 to coauthor the book that would express all they knew about the good goodbye, she agreed happily.
After living and working in Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, and California, she returned after retiring to Rhode Island where she spent her childhood. And she cherished the gift of being with her mother at the end of her life in 2010. She lives in the woods with her spouse Rick and dog Ziggy.