Publish with us

Connect with us

© 2020 Penguin SEA

Book Author

The Cost of Goodbye

The Other Side of Caregiving

Stephanie Chu
Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Amazon

“Medicine is so advanced these days. This treatment is going to work,” my father insisted, even as his doctor had just explained that the liver cancer treatment was about life extension, not a cure.

What followed was a year and a half of navigating his care while he refused to acknowledge he was dying. Family tensions surfaced that we had spent decades avoiding. Singapore’s healthcare system excelled at treatment but struggled with the human side of terminal illness. And I discovered that caregiving someone in denial is nothing like what anyone prepares you for.

This book peels back the sanitized narratives around illness and death. It looks at how terminal diagnoses can reignite unresolved trauma and force us to confront what we’ve avoided in ourselves, our families, and our cultures. For anyone who has faced loss and found themselves asking what really matters in the end.

Published: Mar/2026

ISBN: 9789815323054

Length: 224 Pages

The Cost of Goodbye

The Other Side of Caregiving

Stephanie Chu

“Medicine is so advanced these days. This treatment is going to work,” my father insisted, even as his doctor had just explained that the liver cancer treatment was about life extension, not a cure.

What followed was a year and a half of navigating his care while he refused to acknowledge he was dying. Family tensions surfaced that we had spent decades avoiding. Singapore’s healthcare system excelled at treatment but struggled with the human side of terminal illness. And I discovered that caregiving someone in denial is nothing like what anyone prepares you for.

This book peels back the sanitized narratives around illness and death. It looks at how terminal diagnoses can reignite unresolved trauma and force us to confront what we’ve avoided in ourselves, our families, and our cultures. For anyone who has faced loss and found themselves asking what really matters in the end.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Amazon

Stephanie Chu

Stephanie is a former civil servant who traded government meetings for deadlifts when she started her own fitness business. A literature major who once taught in secondary school (which feels like several lifetimes ago), she has spent her career helping people in different ways, first through education and the civil service, then through mental-health-focused fitness.

When she's not coaching clients or running her business, you'll find her pounding the pavement to Lady GaGa, firmly believing that most of life's problems can be solved by running fast enough to "The Edge of Glory." She's a trainer who believes fitness is as much about mental resilience as physical strength, and deep down, she's still that educator who just wants people to see how awesome they really are and live better lives.

She believes everyone has their own path to figure out, and being human is incredibly messy. Which is exactly why we all need a little more kindness for ourselves and each other.