“When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”
Oliver Sacks
“If love is what we feel we’re providing at those mysterious moments leading up to death, that, I suppose, is what makes a death “good”, if anything really can.”
S. B. Nuland, in How we die: reflections on life’s final chapter
“Those of us left behind search for dignity in order not to think ill of ourselves. We try to atone for our dying friend’s inability to achieve a measure of dignity, perhaps by forcing it on him. It’s our one possible victory over the awful process of this kind of death.”
S. B. Nuland, in How we die: reflections on life’s final chapter
“… each victim of dementia inflicts his own unique form of pain on those who love him (…) the memories and the dreadful toll drag on, and from these the release can only be partial. A life that as been well lived and a shared sense of happiness and accomplishment are ever after seen through the smudged glass of its last few years. For the survivors, the concourse of existence has forever become less bright and less direct.”
S. B. Nuland, in How we die: reflections on life’s final chapter
“There is no way to deter old age from its grim duty, but a life of accomplishment makes up in quality for what it cannot add in quantity.”
S. B. Nuland, in How we die: reflections on life’s final chapter
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