"Let everything happen to you/beauty and terror," wrote the great Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. In 2020, our world fell victim not only to the terror of a viral pandemic but to profound grief and loss compounded by social isolation. As a palliative medicine physician, Sunita Puri watched her patients die in isolation, their nurses the last to hold their hands. She spoke with grieving families over Zoom, choosing her words carefully to help them to make wrenching decisions on behalf of loved ones who clung to life on a ventilator. As she experienced her own professional distress and personal grief, there were times when solace and connection felt impossible. "Just keep going," Rilke concluded, "for no feeling is final." When the emotions she witnessed and experienced felt final, returning to writing and reading offered a way to keep going, even if forward motion meant just turning one page and reading the next. In this reading and conversation, we will explore the centrality of language in medicine, the interconnectedness between writing and doctoring, and finding a way to live through and even embrace the beauty of terror of being human. Join us for this special event. You will also have the opportunity to receive a free e-book copy of "That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour" as supplies dictate.