Sweetly Sleeping
Lying quietly in her bed, the morphine pump doing its work to keep her free of pain, Aunt sleeps peacefully. The pain, we think, is due to the fact that she fell out of bed sometime in the night and...
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A PRAYER
The death in our family; the funeral; the lingering duty to pray for mercy for the soul just departed — and for all souls in their many needs. A prayer, well-thought, gives comfort when emotions...
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No Curses Remain
God’s everlasting blessing May God bend close to you today and hold you tightly in His big arms. There you will find endless peace, wonderful comfort, and limitless grace to face whatever comes your...
View ArticleA New Journey for our Beloved Feathered Friend
My youngest daughter buried her pet parakeet today. She had received the blue budgie she named “Sweetheart” for her birthday two years ago after she begged, and begged, and begged for a bird. I wasn’t...
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Nineteenth-Century Quotes to Amuse, Delight, and Annoy
In honor of signing my contract to write an e-book (based on my Master’s thesis) on middle-class mourning etiquette, fashion, and contradictions in late Victorian New York, I posted some of my favorite...
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The Long Goodbye
She said nothing. He said nothing. Yet, the silent conversation between them spoke volumes. Well punctuated sentences, long paragraphs. Profound. This was the beginning of goodbye; the end of a long...
View ArticleHell or Hellish? by Janet Hagberg
Hell or Hellish? Reflections on the Afterlife and Near Death experiences Hell. Hellish. Gates of h
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Book Review: Did You Ever Have a Family, by Bill Clegg
“All we can do is play our parts and keep each other company.” Something funny occasionally happens when you finish a book and let some time pass before you write a review of it. As I was reading Bill...
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Book Review: All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
“Nothing happens in my life. Nothing has to happen, she said, for it to be life.” By all rights, All My Puny Sorrows should be a bleak, miserable read. Thanks to Toews, it isn’t. This book made me...
View ArticleNatural Dying: Advance Care Planning for Dementia with Stanley A. Terman MD, PhD
https://lessonsfromdying.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/terman-wyatt-natural-dying-advancecareplanning-for-dementia-end-of-life-univ-for-feb-27-2014-16-214.mp3 Read transcript here.
View ArticleCommittee begins look at complexities of assisted-dying legislation
The clock on the parliamentary committee room wall marched relentlessly forward on Monday, as the politicians huddled below slowly waded into the intense swirl of right-to-die issues they must decide...
View ArticleEulogy
When I’ve drawn my final breath And my body, laid to rest What will they say of my time spent here? What will I have given to leave a lasting impression? Will there be pain in their laughter? Joy in...
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Alberta doctors divided on assisted death for minors
A proposal that would give teenagers the right to die by euthanasia has divided Alberta doctors, months before the federal government introduces legislation on the thorny issue of doctor-assisted...
View ArticleMy Day with a Death Pimp
Life is funny. You laugh and then you die. Seriously. Life is funny in a magical sense, for we never know who we are going to meet. I recently had the chance to interview Stimp Hawkins, an 82-year-old...
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A Profound Loss
It’s been difficult to pop onto my blog. By now, I should have written a happy after Craft and Hobby Association trade show post with lots of smiling selfies with my artsy/crafty peeps. For those of...
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Gratitude 20Jan16 The Power of Death
Over the past several weeks we have been witness to celebrity deaths. Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, and Meadowlark Lemon to name a few. In death, they are emulated, and accolades of their...
View ArticleAssisted dying: Hard choices reflected in detailed report
The newly released 461-page report of an expert panel on assisted dying lays out such a tangle of issues and questions that it is difficult to see how the parliamentary committee evaluating them can...
View Articlecaregiver grief
When you are caring for someone who is near death, it can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time. That is why it is important for you to care for yourself. If self-care is not a priority,...
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Major Tom.... We Hear You
August 16, 1977. My mom is in the drive thru line to pick up her dry cleaning when it is announced that Elvis Presley has died. She accelerates her car and we almost go into a wall. December 8, 1980....
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A Lot to Process...a Final Lesson from My Mother...
Three months ago, I wrote a post about my mother’s diagnosis of late-stage ovarian cancer and how she was battling the beast. She and I shared this “sixth sense” that her time was short…but I had no...
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