“This Changes Everything,” is the late Rev. Edward Dufresne’s moving and brave chronicle of his six-year journey with cancer. A Lutheran pastor for over 40 years, Dufresne’s journal of daily thoughts and reflections accompanied by his own photography provides readers with inspiring messages and insights into finding hope and joy even in life’s most difficult times.
Residents of Penobscot, Dufresne and his wife, retired judge the Hon. Elizabeth LaStaiti, met later in life and traveled extensively together until the onset of his illness in 2017. Their preparations to set sail on a world cruise—on which Dufresne was to serve as the ship’s chaplain—were cut abruptly short when a routine pre-trip physical and subsequent tests revealed a malignant tumor. “This Changes Everything” chronicles their changed lives, living and dealing day-to-day with his terminal disease—always with the hope of benefitting from new and innovative treatments.
Dufresne received his M. Div. And S.T.M. degrees from Yale Divinity School, where he studied with Henri Nouwen and wrote “Partnership: Marriage and the Committed Life” (Paulist Press, 1975), which received a National Religious Book Award. Ordained in 1975 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, he taught at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and served many parishes both as a Lutheran pastor and as a licensed Episcopal priest. He specialized in consulting with congregations in crisis and transition, including St. Brendan the Navigator in Deer Isle.
Published in keeping with Dufresne’s final wishes, “This Changes Everything,” is a testament to his faith, candor, and courage, which sustained him throughout many challenges and setbacks. He hoped sharing his journey might help others navigate through the layers and complications of serious illness and the challenges life brings, while providing a path to finding faith, hope, and joy in order to live our best lives.
The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For more information please contact [email protected].