My mother recently died. She was 93 years of age, and she was “ripe and ready.” I believe this with my whole heart, and that helps me accept the fact I’ll never see her again in this lifetime. She expressed to me her readiness more than once. Considering all the circumstances with which she lived these last few years, and especially her final few weeks, I totally get it. Enough is enough. And I believe the end-of-life feels better to…..
Saturday was our wedding anniversary. One year since we were married. One year since that wonderful day, a day that was almost perfect in every way. After twelve years, living as husband and wife, we wanted to make it official. We chose to experience the joys of saying “I do,” of toasting each other and consecrating ourselves to each other in front of witnesses. With only 48 hours of pre-planning, our family made this special ceremony possible; and afterwards they…..
A variety of experiences of death informed and influenced my life. They are reference points for my acceptance of death and expectation of the unexpected. As you read my short vignettes, perhaps you can reflect on your own reference points, how they have influenced your life, and your acceptance of its end. *** One day Lizzie, our female cocker spaniel, was alive; the next she was dead. How did I know? I could hear Dizzy, our male spaniel, as he…..
I am still getting used to it. I promised you I’d write about you, about us. This is harder to do than I thought it might be. A promise is a promise. We had twelve amazing years together. For these I give thanks every day. The last year was a rough one. From your diagnosis of pancreatic cancer till your death we had a mere seven months. Seven mindful months. Seven months to say goodbye. Seven months is not enough……
In my last year of high school, I had a pair of older friends who married fairly young. When they would go out together, they sometimes asked me to come along to be a companion to a visiting out-of-town friend whose name was Brent. Our double dates, if you want to call them that, were always platonic because Brent was destined to become my friends’ brother-in-law. He was engaged to the younger sister of the female, and his fiancée lived…..
The following is an excerpt from our book. When Grandma died at the age of seventy-seven, I was thirteen. Grandma had breast cancer, discovered after it metastasized into her back, and the pain there was unbearable. Her stoicism kept her from complaining for a long time. In the late 1960s there was very little that could be done to slow the progression of such a significant spread of the disease. Perhaps now would be no different. I do not recall…..
In Journey’s End: Death, Dying, and the End of Life, it is our privilege to compile a great variety of content and resources. We have several goals for their use: To serve as educational tools in the training of professionals, students and volunteers To help and support families and friends as they prepare for and live through times of dying, death and bereavement To add to the cultural conversation and comfort level with the topic of death and dying Chapter…..
Julie and I were interviewed by the Death Matters show that broadcasts every Wednesday at Noon PST in Vancouver, BC, Canada on November 8, 2017. The station is 100.5 FM. Thank you so much for allowing us to be guests! Death, dying, end of life, palliative care, hospice…words most of the population does not want to hear! Death frightens people, but why? We are all going to die, but hopefully we have many more years left. Whether that is the…..
Our goal is to educate, provide information, share articles and resources, and to get discussions flowing. Death is a part of the life cycle. To be born, we will die one day. This is a fact. Our book encompasses so much. Besides providing resource material, references, and quotes, we have professionals and individuals who contributed chapters about their own client’s/patient’s deaths along with their own family’s and friend’s deaths. We cover the death of spouses and life partners, parents, children,…..
When someone whom we love dies, quite naturally we grieve. We have lost the connection to our loved one. So it seems. We have lost the place in our lives where we felt safe in the knowledge that our beloved was physically accessible, tangibly present. We feel lost. We miss the laughter in times of shared joy; we miss the tears in times of sorrow and times when our hearts connected in compassion. We miss the hugs, shared in every…..