“There at the End: Voices from Final Exit Network: A Celebration of 20 Years” shares powerful testimonies from individuals connected to Final Exit Network (FEN), showcasing the organization’s dedication to supporting mentally competent adults suffering from terminal conditions in their right to choose death.
What is the concept of “death cleaning”, and why is it considered a gift to our survivors?
A woman’s terminal cancer diagnosis leads her to organize farewells with loved ones, ensuring her affairs are in order, resulting in what her family calls a “Good Death.”
“Look at this book and let’s talk,” I imagine people saying. Or, “Read the story on page (X) and know that’s what I envision for myself.”
“You need to understand that you should not be afraid of dying. Be afraid of not living your life, of mindlessly moving from day to day …”
“One of the most common types of stories we hear about caregiving at The Conversation Project is the ‘seagull effect.’ I’ve been teaching others about this. Yet this past year, it hit me like a brick … I am the seagull!”
“Once you come up with a few items that bring comfort and involve the senses, it becomes easier to construct an individualized plan to share with those who are near and dear to our hearts.”
“Try to cherish that last goodbye. That one last opportunity to connect with your loved one while still earthly creatures. They are saying their last goodbyes, with love in their hearts.”
It is primarily through having places to “story” that people have the opportunity to try to make sense of the senseless, to embrace what needs to be embraced, and to reveal that the human spirit prevails.
While not everyone who reads this message, because of their own circumstances, will feel like being thankful this week, I thought I would take a break from our usual discussions to share a few thoughts that my own family has embraced for several years on Thanksgiving. It is an incomplete and changing list of some of the things we have to be thankful for, with a measure of reality thrown in to keep us from feeling too smug about being Americans, or living in America. The thoughts are intentionally not sectarian or religious. I hope they have a universal human quality about them.
