death and dying | death and dying
Feb.11.2013
Just a few days to go before he turns 87, my father decides to call of his dinner celebration.
He grumbles, “I’m not feeling well.”
It’s long overdue, finally and inevitably he has to undergo a dialysis.
It’s not the dialysis that’s worrying him but the whirling thoughts in his head that scare him...
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Jan.07.2012
In As You Like It, Shakespeare said man has seven ages. The first four are each expressed in a single word: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier. The last three needed explanation. There's a stage where everything comes together, and the man becomes a judge. It's the stage with "Fair round belly, with...
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Oct.10.2011
Jonathan's* father had always taken care of everything, from their business to social activities. Jonathan, even though he was 50, was comfortable taking a back seat while his father drove, both literally and metaphorically. He'd been trained to believe that his secondary status was normal....
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Sep.26.2011
We buried Sam the unforgettable golden retriever yesterday, a little more than nine months after taking him on a farewell walk along the San Francisco Bay because he was dying fast. But Sam, 14, which is a respectable old age in golden dog years, decided to perk up and hang around a little...
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Jul.27.2011
My first reaction to the big news stories last weekend, first the shootings in Norway and then the death of Amy Winehouse, was to feel more sympathy for the slain Utøya kids. They were completely blameless. They had no hand in their own destruction; no one arrived to help until it was too late; no...
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Jan.22.2011
Reynolds Price's death is not just a literary light extinguished, it's a whole blackout. There's not another Reynolds Price.
As has been affirmed on my Red Room page, and anywhere else I've ever affirmed, Reynolds Price is my literary hero. The man could write ANYTHING -- essays, short stories,...
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Jan.14.2011
Restoring wetlands... animal rescue... helping small children... there are cool causes everywhere. Then there's mine. If you want un-cool and un-sexy, here it is: death and dying.
COMPASSION & CHOICES. We suggest that even if most of us are like Woody Allen -- we're not afraid of dying, we...
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Sep.15.2010
“Mom, I am ready to go.” Maia, my 14.5 year-old wolf dog, said to me one day. “I want to hear it three days in a row.” I replied. She said this to me a few days after she fell off the bed. The falling episode happened at 6am and caused her a great amount of pain. From that day forward her wolf...
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Aug.03.2010
Looking to do something a little different on your vacation? I just wrote and article for Gadling.com a travel site. Here's a treaser and a link to the entire article:
Strapped for vacation cash? Spend a day with the dead. "Tombstone tourism" is on the rise. See fabulous artwork, enjoy...
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Sep.02.2009
It seemed an utterly natural thing to do, to be dying of cancer, to have suffered a year or two of agony, and yet to agree to give one last poetry reading. Still, with Mort Marcus you can never be too sure. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line he managed to do another. And of course...
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