Caregiving Help Library
Care of the Dying Part 1: A Personal Conversation About Dying. Introduction
Continued
didn't call!"
"Well kiddo, this trip is harder on me than I thought it would be. I'm pretty tired."
"Oh, Dad, today there was some news about some danger where you are headed tomorrow. I am so afraid something will happen to you."
"Despite my weary bones, this has been a long and fascinating trip. If I die tomorrow I'll be content."
Now, change the above scene to the same dialogue, with your father's trip being his death. Notice the same emotions in a new context. You are fearful that you will lose your father. You can express his fears, which is good, but can you cope with or accept your father's feelings?
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1 Steven Levine quoted in Taylor, Allegra Acquainted with the Night: A Year on the Frontiers of Death. (London: Fontana, 1989), p. 145, in Rinpoche, Sogyal Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (New York: Harper Collins,1994), p.200.
2 This story is paraphrased from my unpublished undergraduate thesis: Williams, Erin D., Euthanasia: Is it ever Justifiable? (1991). The paper was reviewed by Dr. James F. Childress and Dr. John C. Fletcher at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. The text is available from Erin Williams, Executive Director, Foundation for Genetic Medicine, Inc., 10900 University Boulevard, MSN 4E3, Manassas, Virginia 20110 USA, ewilliams@geneticmedicine.org.
3 Rinpoche, Sogyal Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. (New York: Harper Collins,1994), p. 174.
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