Nurses Ignore Hospital Regulations To Grant Dying Man His Final Wish | The Huffington Post

 "After doctors at Aarhus University Hospital told Carsten Flemming Hansen that he was too sick for surgery and would die within days from internal bleeding following an aortic aneurysm, he revealed the final thing he wanted to do. And that was to smoke a cigarette and drink a glass of cold white wine outside, while watching the sun set. According to a post on the hospital’s Facebook account, nurses wheeled Hansen out onto a balcony on a bed last Tuesday and broke the building’s strict no-smoking policy by allowing him to light up. He then enjoyed a spectacular sunset as he sipped his drink, surrounded by close family and friends."

Nurses Ignore Hospital Regulations To Grant Dying Man His Final Wish | The Huffington Post:

Cancer Taught Me To Live Like I'm Dying | The Huffington Post

"The best any of us can hope for is to know that it mattered that we were here—that we somehow made a difference for someone somewhere, that we created a special moment, a special memory for someone to cherish. And every day, we have a chance to create those moments for ourselves and for someone else, and it may well start with a seemingly innocuous greeting."

Cancer Taught Me To Live Like I'm Dying | The Huffington Post

Celebrating Life When Death Draws Near

"So-called living funerals are "on the rise," says Denise Carson, author of Parting Ways (University of California Press, $35), which explores alternatives to traditional end-of-life mourning rituals. "Some look like a cross between a wedding and a funeral," she says. These celebrations provide an opportunity for someone who is near death to gather close friends and relatives and share memories. No rules or customs govern these get-togethers. They can take place anywhere, from a community center to a church or synagogue to a funeral home. "I've seen the honoree dressed in everything from a hospital gown to a tuxedo," Carson says. "Others are more somber, with prayers, psalms, anointing and last rites by clergy." Some attendees bring mementos, such as photos from a family vacation, or poems to recite. In the 1997 bestseller Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, the book's subject, Morrie Schwartz, who knows his death is imminent, holds a living funeral in his home because he doesn't want to miss out on tributes to himself.

Celebrating Life When Death Draws Near 

How to Make a Shiva Call | My Jewish Learning

"The great genius of Jewish bereavement is to empower the community to be God’s partner in comforting those who mourn. In making a shiva call in an appropriate and traditional way, we are the medium through which God’s comfort can be invoked. In learning the art of coping with dying, we are, in fact, learning an important aspect of the art of Jewish living."

How to Make a Shiva Call | My Jewish Learning:

Funeral homes and the death industry are undergoing radical shifts toward DIY death — Quartz

In the words of Amy Cunningham, a lecturer and in-demand funeral director in the New York City area, “We’ve mastered the wedding—but the funeral needs a lot of work....The funeral industry may have assumed it was safe from the whims of supply and demand; everyone dies, after all. But modern consumers are educating themselves and demanding more. If the funeral industry is to survive the 21st century, it will need to shed its old ways and begin to participate in open, frank discussions around what we truly want out of life—and death.”

Funeral homes and the death industry are undergoing radical shifts toward DIY death — Quartz:

For Families: When Families Grieve

Physical Intimacy and the Dying - SevenPonds BlogSevenPonds Blog

 "We do not lose our humanness and need for connection when we are dying. We may have to make adjustments, forego some aspects or find creative yet loving ways to maintain the connection in a way that affirms the loving relationship that was present before the illness. Human touch, however lovingly delivered, is a potent elixir."

Physical Intimacy and the Dying - SevenPonds BlogSevenPonds Blog