When Bad Things Happen: Picture Books | Chicago Public Library | BiblioCommons

Death, loss, violence. 50 books to help kids cope, learn empathy and build resilience.

When Bad Things Happen: Picture Books | Chicago Public Library | BiblioCommons

Beginning to talk about the end - The Boston Globe

“I’m not going to die tonight, or next Tuesday, or anytime soon,” says one presenter, “but I wanted a chance to think about and express my wishes. And then I can go on living my life.”   

Each of the four women started by filling out a workbook called “Your Way,” which posed a series of detailed questions. What mattered most to them in their lives today — which activities, which values, which beliefs? If they were someday to become incapacitated (unable to recognize or communicate with people), would they want medical care to prolong life or just to provide comfort? Would they want artificial nutrition and hydration, or not? How would they feel about pain management? How important would it be to remain clear-headed? How important to die without lingering? To die at home?"

Beginning to talk about the end - The Boston Globe

Disrupting Death - Could This Be the Next Industry Ripe For Change? - Booming Encore

"So with this potential growth opportunity and in turn the money that also comes with it, could the business of death be the next business opportunity for disruption? It has already started for funeral delivery. As much as baby boomers insisted on changing things while they were living – they are also doing the same in how they are leaving.  Custom caskets, green funerals, funeral webcasts and writing their own obituaries are just some of the changes currently underway."

Disrupting Death - Could This Be the Next Industry Ripe For Change? - Booming Encore

Daryn Kagan's Mother's Day card to her daughter's first mother - CBS News

Because of my daughter's first mother, her loss, the loss of her young life, ends up being my gain. When my husband tells our daughter, "You get that trait from Mom," she lights up with pride. We all know who he's talking about. And it's not me. I'm fine with this. My motherhood bucket already overflows with so much more than I thought I'd get to experience. I was the one who got to tuck her in at night. To talk about boys. To shop for her dress for the school dance. That was my lap she sat in the first time I let her steer a car down our quiet street...I told my daughter, "Your mom will forever be one of my best friends simply because she made you."

Daryn Kagan's Mother's Day card to her daughter's first mother - CBS News

In a secular age, what does it mean to die a good death? | Aeon Essays

Mary Talbot writes: "The modern hospice and palliative care movements emerged in compassionate reaction to the pain, loneliness and grief in which so many medicalised deaths end. Set in motion by Dame Cicely Saunders, an Anglican nurse and physician who founded the first modern hospice in 1967 in London, and the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, whose work with the terminally ill inspired her ‘five stages of grief’ paradigm, these models focus on the psycho-social needs of the dying person and the alleviation of physical symptoms. A good death, from the view of a hospice, includes ‘an open awareness of dying, good or open communication, a gradual acceptance of death, and a settling of both practical and interpersonal business’, writes Beverley McNamara, an Australian sociologist who studies the concept of good death in hospitals and nursing homes. ‘In order for the social and psychological aspects of death awareness and acceptance to take place,’ she adds, ‘the dying person’s suffering should be reduced and they must be relieved of pain.’ Spiritual concerns, too, are taken into account as part of the psychological package, but are not necessarily given more weight than other dimensions of care. This version of how to die – a sort of hospice ars moriendi – has become the conventional wisdom about what comprises good death among many of the people who study modern dying, or work in the trenches of end-of-life care. I think back to my volunteer training group and the salient themes that recurred in our disparate fantasies. We wanted a minimum of pain and discomfort, a favourite place (usually home), privacy and a congenial ambience (skydiving notwithstanding), our worldly affairs in order, the chance to say goodbye and sew up loose emotional ends with loved ones. A peaceful and, ideally, lucid mind."

In a secular age, what does it mean to die a good death? | Aeon Essays

End Game -- EOL Documentary (Netflix)

A 104-year old Scientist Prepares for Assisted Death

Champagne bubbles danced in fancy glasses and birthday candles burned atop a cheesecake marking 104 years of a long and accomplished life...But Goodall was not wholeheartedly celebrating the milestone last month in Perth, Australia. The botanist and ecologist, who is thought to be the country’s oldest scientist, said that he has lived too long.

And now, he said, he is ready to die....
“My feeling is that an old person like myself should have full citizenship rights, including the right of assisted suicide,” the 104-year-old man added.

Goodall set out on the trip Wednesday, traveling more than 8,000 miles to northwestern Switzerland, where he plans to end his own life next week.

Switzerland, like most other countries, has not passed legislation legalizing assisted suicide; but under some circumstances its laws do not forbid it.

“I should be glad when I get on the plane — so far, so good,” he said at the airport, wearing a shirt that read: “Ageing Disgracefully.”