Text 2960, 56 rader
Skriven 2004-12-07 17:28:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
   Kommentar till text 2945 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Death
=============
Hello Bob,

 > MV> I agree and /I/ can speak from personal experience. When my
 > MV> father died beginning this year at age 87, that was sad,
 > MV> but it was not a shock.

 > I would say it depends at least partly on the circumstances.

It always does, it always does..

 > I don't know about you, but I found it hell on earth to watch
 > people I loved be physically destroyed and degraded,

Same here. Watching my father's faculties degrade to that of a four year old
and in the end seeing him lose control over his bodily functions was a very
painful process. He was very unhappy in the nursing home where he spent his
last two years. I would like to have him spared that, but there was no choice.

And so when the end eventually came, it was sad, but it was also a relief.

 > My greatest wish is to collapse and die in seconds one fine
 > day, and that's a wish I would generously extend to anyone else.

That is what more or less happened to my wife. Well, she wasn't declared dead
until after that race in the ambulance, but for her that made no difference:
she went out like a light.

The ride in the ambulance BTW even scared me, a former Porche owner that didn't
mind exceeding the speed limit by a factor two in his younger days.

The driver really did what he could, so I must assume that there was still some
hope. You don't take risks like that for a delivery to the morgue.

 > One of the luckiest persons I've ever heard of was Bing
 > Crosby, who - after playing a nice game of golf with
 > friends in Spain - walking back to the clubhouse for a
 > conversation and a drink - simply dropped dead without a
 > sound, in the instant it took for his body to fall to the
 > ground. How sad most of us aren't that lucky.

Lucky for the person in question maybe. But you don't want to be the spouse
standing next to that person and catch her/him.

No, I did not have to watch my wife slowly wither away in a nursing home.

But I did not have time to say farewell to her either. I had to make decisions
regarding her body on a moment's notice without mental preparation and without
my family and friends to help me. I was the one that had to drive the car and
caravan back from Denmark. Alone, without my navigator...

You don't want that to happen to your enemy either...

Cheers, Michiel

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