DES MOINES, Iowa—Ave Maria Press author Joyce Hutchison, Iowa’s first hospice nurse and an expert on care of the dying, passed away Saturday, May 7, 2016, at the age of 76 after an almost three-year battle with lung cancer.

Hutchison served as palliative care coordinator and hospice educator for Iowa Health Hospice and Home Care in Des Moines. A registered nurse, her clinical experience included work as an oncology nurse, home care nurse, and residence team director of a hospice facility. A member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Oncology Nursing Society, she also frequently presented workshops on care of the dying and hospice.

Hutchison was the coauthor, with Joyce Rupp, of the bestselling books May I Walk You Home? and Now That You’ve Gone Home. Ave will publish Hutchison’s final book, a chronicle of her own journey with cancer, in the spring of 2017.

She is survived by three children, Joe (Ann Marie) of Lynchburg, Virginia, Mike (Carter) of Des Moines, and Julie (Mike) Llsac of Kansas City, Missouri; and nine grandchildren. Her husband, Gary, her parents, and four brothers are deceased.

You can learn more about Hutchison in the Des Moines Register, where you can also read her obituary.

May she rest in the peace of Christ.