Living With Cancer: A Tour of Hospice I welcomed the idea of touring a new hospice facility to confront my fears of pain while dying, writes Susan Gubar in her continuing Living With Cancer series.
LIVES – Lawless Friendship In this story from the New York Times, Mary Cantwell describes her deep grief after a close friend dies, and reflects how the sorrow at the death of a friend is often unrecognized by our cultural norms.
A Family Plot In this story from the New York Times, Steven Petrow describes how a trip to find a family burial site helped him and his father finally speak the same language about their own mortality
VIEWPOINT: ‘Allow Natural Death’ vs. ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ In this article from the American Journal of Nursing, Jo Stecher explores her own personal emotional responses to signing a “Do Not Resuscitate” order for her mother and presents an argument for changing the language to “Allow Natural Death” (AND), including how AND reflects an end-of-life philosophy of providing comfort…
Finding the Meaning of Death in a Concert Hall In this article, a hospice nurse remembers how music helped her reflect on the suffering in inherent in her job, and her need to offer people hope. Not hope of cure – but of pain relieved and comfort given.
Family Perspective: Alzheimers In this video from the fall 2016 Palliative Care Institute seminar, Death Happens: Let’s Talk About Your Choices, Josselyn Winslow tells the story of some of the challenges she faced in choosing when to stop interventions for her mother, who had late stage Alzheimers.
Family Perspective: Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking (VSED) In this video from the fall 2016 Palliative Care Institute seminar, Death Happens: Let’s Talk About Your Choices, Phyllis Shacter tells the story of her husband’s decision to choose VSED rather than move into late stage Alzheimers.
In this video from the fall 2016 Palliative Care Institute seminar – Death Happens: Let’s Talk About Your Choices, Grace Wang tells the story of her husband Ethan’s decision to choose Death with Dignity. Ethan Remmel, was an Associate Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University. He wrote a moving and powerful blog, Living While Dying, for Psychology Today…
In this blog post, a retired nurse recounts her exploration of the phenomenon of the dying seeing their deceased relatives before they die. Whether her mother’s vision of her dead husband was real or not, she is comforted.
Dragonfly’s Eye: Instructions for my Funeral Marie Eaton I have often thought that after death, we just become part of the larger great spirit, and there have been moments in my life where it seems the fabric between here and the beyond rips open, and we are given a glimpse. One such time led me…