Hospice workers are saints. They do So much good. I've dealt with more end of life care than I would have liked but there is no way I could do it as a career. Some of the most wise people I've ever known, have spent a lot of time caring for the dying via hospice. They don't get enough credit.
I worked for a while at a skilled nursing facility, to make some xtra money. I had occasion to sit with 3 people when they passed. Two of those people were very old and had lived long happy-ish lives. One of them knew where she was and that she was dying, the other knew he was dying but not where he was in time or location. The third person was only in her early 60's. She'd been a super intelligent business woman at one point, but she started drinking after the death of her husband and she never stopped. In only a couple of years she'd withered away to nothing and was dying of liver failure. There was little they could do. I spent time with her in the last 4 months of her life, when she was forced by disability to be sober. She was so funny, sarcastic and irreverent. I learned a lot from her and it was hard to keep in mind she was dying. She had a stroke which ultimately was the beginning of the end for her. Her family said that she expressed joy at my companionship and they honored me by inviting me to sit with her on her last night. I know in my heart of hearts that she would have been SO pissed off to be laying there, with no muscle tone in half her face, paralyzed and surrounded by sad people.
I hope no one attempts to deny me my wishes for the end of my life, if I'm already so unlucky as to not expire surprisingly in my sleep. I would never tell someone else they didn't have the right die by their own decision.
