“What My Grandmother Knew About Dying”

An illustration of an older hand holding  a younger hand.
Geriatrician and palliative care physician Rachael Bedard writes for the New Yorker on the deathbed experience of her grandmother Harriet:

I have often remarked that I didn’t go into medicine to simply bear witness, but the work has a way of forcing you to do just that. Even with foresight and the most careful attention, you cannot plan on grace, or force closure; you cannot practice someone’s last words in advance. People die as they live and live as they are. Harriet didn’t intend to die at all, and yet she did so in a way that perfectly reflected her spirit and charisma. How did she manage it?

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