What is with the name of this blog?
On February 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight boxing championship of the world. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson many times in the decades that followed that victory. Urban legend has it that on one of these shows, Johnny Carson asked Ali what he was afraid of and Ali responded by […]
We Die the Way We Live
After decades of dealing with death and end of life care, I have this one belief: We each will die the same way we choose to live. What does that mean? What am I trying to say here? Think about it this way and ask yourself: Do you meet problems and challenges in your personal […]
How to talk about death?
Updated November 2016 Why is it so hard for us to talk about death? I think we, as humans, experience fear when we face the unknown, and death is the greatest unknown event in our lives. Yet we will each die, in some fashion, at some point. This vulnerability of our human form is downright […]
What is Hospice? How Do I Get It?
I wish I could say we have advanced as a society in America in the last 30 years around our understanding of how we support a dying person through hospice, whether they are at home, in a hospital, or in a nursing home. The truth is that I find myself starting from scratch every time […]
How to be Creative in Celebrations of Life
His name was Harold and he had two daughters, Doris and Jean. Doris lived here in Vermont, Jean lived far away. Harold had come to Vermont for a visit with Doris and passed away in his sleep peacefully one night while here in the Green Mountain State. To keep with his only known wishes for […]