Dying with Dignity

Aging well is one thing. Dying well is another.

Author’s Photo of Her Mother’s Hands

Every now and then, I watch a YouTube video posted by someone dying of cancer. These documentaries generally begin with diagnosis, and they end when the person either dies or recovers. The videos often cover a period of several years, so you see the cancer victim’s transformation over time.

I find these videos inspiring, not because I have some ghoulish obsession with disease, but because I’m of an age (76) where losing my friends, neighbors, and family members to death is becoming commonplace. I’ve lost my father, my mother, and a former husband.

Contemplating my own mortality feels like a healthy thing to do.

In fact, the ancient Stoics recommended it. They practiced memento mori, Latin for “remember you must die.” Why? Because meditating on death helps a person appreciate and live more fully in the present moment.

“That the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.” -Marcus Aurelius

Let’s take a hypothetical situation: terminal cancer