Carol Luebering, prolific author on the topic of bereavement, death and dying and a longtime contributor to Celebration Publications, died Nov. 24, at her home in Cincinnati after a year-long battle with lung cancer. She was 75.
Luebering was an author and editor at St. Anthony Messenger Press when, in 1985, she began writing Sunday scriptural reflections for “The Caring Community,” a large-print pastoral newsletter for the hospitalized and homebound published by Celebration Publications, a subsidiary of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Co.
She coauthored the publication with Jim Johnston until it closed in 2005, when she began writing a monthly column on the needs of senior Catholics for Celebration, NCR’s worship resource.
During her long writing career she produced 15 books and dozens of pamphlets on the pastoral and spiritual subjects. Her last book was Coping with Loss: Praying Your Way to Acceptance (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009).
Luebering lived what she counseled others to do when facing death. During her final months, she made a list of names of 400 people she wanted to thank and proceeded to contact each one to share her gratitude. She is survived by Jack Luebering, her husband of 54 years, five children and 10 grandchildren.
