Uncommon Grace: Revelations in the Place Called Mourning

“Julian, I have a brain tumor.”

Julian Schlusberg and his partner, Ort, were sitting on the couch in their den, when Ort made this announcement. And then Ort told Julian the rest of the story—how he went to the doctor for a flu shot and casually mentioned that he had been having dizzy spells. The doctor sent him for tests, and the results were bad—very bad. Ort had a large, aggressive brain tumor, a glioblastoma multiforme grade four that would cause his death within a year.

In the years si...