Is there any subtle way to ask, “If you have a choice, where would you prefer to die?” There might be, but I can’t figure it out, so I am asking in my rustic way, “Have you thought about where you want to die?” Assuming you’re not in a tragic accident (God forbid) you will have a choice.
The reason I ask is, my father-in-law passed away earlier this month and his choice in his advanced directive was to “go home”. Three of us (all grown-ups) had to read it over several times before it was clear to us. No where did he write “I want to die at home ” but all of the sentences in his advanced directive read “If __blank__ is happening, my preference is to go home.” And every response to every medical situation presented was “to go home.” Finally we got it. We should bring him home.
Both of my parents passed away in hospitals. Advanced directives or even conversations about how to die weren’t very vogue at the time. I’m pretty sure dying in the hospital was what my father wanted as about 1 week before he passed, he stood up and said, “I need to go back to the hospital.” It was the day after Christmas. We pulled the car into the snowy front yard, right up to the front door so he wouldn’t have to walk but a few steps, and in my heart, I knew that this was the beginning of the end. We were all still pretty young, in our teens and 20’s and I think it would have been too difficult for him to leave surrounded by us and the amazing life he had created for us.
For my mother though, I think she might have wanted to pass away at home. The beautiful home she had created. It was Easter, the garden was blooming, the house was clean and ready for newness, and while she lay dying, she could not speak, so she wrote, “I want to go home” or “When can I go home” I can’t recall exactly and we weren’t sure what she meant. Since she was a deeply spiritual person, we thought she might be implying her spiritual home. She died very quickly, so most likely she would not have made it all the way home even if we had begun the process. And dying en-route in a gurney or ambulance would have been dreadful. We did the best we could at the time.
Since my experience was hospitals, that was all I knew. I couldn’t imagine dying at home was a good thing. I was wrong. For my father-in-law it was perfect. He had designed many aspects of his own house, built parts of it himself and lived there for over 50 years. It was the keeper of his joy, his pain, his loves, his work, his life — it was the perfect place for him to pass his spirit into it’s next adventure. Since we had discussed the art of shape shifting at different times, in some moments, I imagine his spirit simply shape shifted into the house and became the house. He loved it so much. I mean, really, I don’t know where his spirit is, but it sure doesn’t feel like it has gone too far.
So now I learned that bringing someone who is terminally ill home, can make death feel a little less scary — like just another part of life. Like many people, we moved his hospital bed into the living room so he would be a part of the daily happenings in the house. Life moved on around him and when he was conscious he could hear us, smile at things that were funny, growl at things that hurt, and participate in life with even just his consciousness, his beingness, participating as he could until the very end. We had a professional attendant 24/7 and daily visits by the hospice nurse, and over-care by family so he was well taken care of. Almost every breath of his last days was witnessed by someone nearby who cared.
In those moments I became aware of the beauty of breathing. How profound it is to even take one breath. Time slows down near the end – every second feels like a minute, every minute feels like an hour. A lot of love slips in during those moments. Secrets of the universe can slip in during those gaps and my recommendation is that you be there if you can.
For death, most likely we’ll need the Baby Boomers to bring a forbidden subject into the light and I am grateful again to be living in their shadow. Boomers have a way of making anything that happens to them a big deal. And I appreciate it. They are great teachers. So as they near death, I imagine they’ll again carry the torch of speaking up about the previously taboo subject.
This article in the LA Times on why end-of-life discussions are important has a lot of great things to consider: http://ow.ly/11uH1
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