Early Spring Sunrise, Jamestown, NC
An article in USA TODAY caught my attention recently about a hospice
doctor that was facing end-stage pancreatic cancer himself. Both he and his wife had some very insightful
thoughts and readily admitted that the experience had become surreal for
them. That was also how I felt when my
wife was going through end-stage breast cancer.
And I really identified with how this couple was handling themselves with
grace, gratitude and thanks living.
The doctor had previously written that “Life is to be embraced. Yet death, whenever it comes to each of us,
is as natural as the rising of the sun.
We spend so much money and emotional turmoil staving off death, even for
minutes or hours, beyond all hope, often beyond reason.” Our youth-oriented society tends to err on
the side of total denial that mortal life is finite. He noted that medical intervention has a role
to play in improving those final days, but as we too learned, there are limits
to the adverse misery in those precious final days VS the benefits of some
procedures.
The couple counsels that an advance directive needs to be in place so your
doctors and family don’t have to guess or argue about your wishes. Then you can mourn together, share the loss
together, not worry about decisions, and also be grateful together for your
presence in each other’s life. That
enables everyone including the caretaker and the patient to continue to live
and enables one to check out gracefully with the hope and full knowledge that
death is merely a transition from time to eternity spent with our loved ones
and our Creator.
I’m grateful to understand that once we come to terms with this reality, the
life we’ve been given can truly be lived to the fullest without fear of death in
honor of those who have gracefully made the transition.
