The flip side of this meme: I was the sole caretaker of a friend and business partner in a rural setting for several years. He was, by mutual choice, disassociated with his family due to a difficult past. He was dying of cancer. After years of care, it was clear that his life was ending. He was clear that he wanted to die at home. I was in communication with his doctors who knew this. On his last day, I carried him from our office to his bed. He had lost so much weight that it was possible to do that and he could not walk. He was dying as he wanted, in his own cabin and his own bed. Out of respect, I shared with his brother by phone the news that this would likely be his brother’s final day. His estranged daughter who I had never met and he never talked about sent an ambulance. The police told me they legally had to take him to the hospital. That was the law. I will never forget the horrified look on my friend’s face as they pulled him out of his peaceful bed, across the yard and into the ambulance. I learned later that he died on the long ride to the hospital.
