It was December. Mr. S was well into his 80s and had been trying to die all year. A clot in the lung here. A stop of the heart there. But his best effort to date began simply enough with a trip to the bathroom to brush his teeth. A loud thud brought his wife in to find him lying in the bathroom floor.
we practice what we believe
what we could have done
The old woman died. I heard she slept more and more of the days away until one day she stopped talking and eating in the awake moments. Then her breathing slowed and her breaths shallowed until she stopped breathing altogether.
how it’s always been done
Some time ago, I wrote about how I, being no Denzel Washington groupie, am unaffected by my Denzel doppelgänger. I am, on the other hand, an Atul Gawande groupie and metaphorically wriggle out of my panties every time I read his work.