The Greek word, euthanasia is made up from eu, meaning good, and thanatos, meaning death. What would that look like for you? Conversely, what do you consider a “bad” death? I ask because I got a call from Cape Talk asking me to comment on the situation of a 28-year-old Dutch woman, Zoraya Ter Beek, […]
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic depictions of the death of a colon cancer patient and is not suitable for sensitive readers. On this 2024 Human Rights Day, so close to our marking 30 years of democracy, I have been listening to the radio while picking up family who arrived to spend the school holidays with […]
What rites of passage have you chosen to observe in your life? How might you do things differently if you could turn back the clock and make other decisions? At the end of last month, I turned 70. Questions arose – whether to celebrate or not to celebrate? Party? Dinner? Or to quietly enter the […]
WARNING: This article includes themes of suicide and physician-assisted suicide which may be triggering to some readers. Carol’s predicament A few days ago, 63-year-old Carol de Swardt travelled to Pegasus clinic in Switzerland for an assisted death. She requested 31st January as her day to die. She will first have been given an antiemetic to prevent […]
Forgiveness is essential to healing if we are to have peace in our hearts – that’s what’s on my mind this week. Ever the student, hungry for learning, I’m currently attending an online USA course, “Creating a Good Death” (CAGD). The focus of session three last Sunday, was forgiveness. It’s there on the teacher’s menu […]
My holidays began with the kind of drama that’s the outcome of being overtired. I’d had my last work meeting in the morning, arranged for the electrician to fix a problem, and spent the rest of the day in that frenzy of shopping for a self-drive, self-catering holiday. Readers know what that is like. Later, […]
I’ve been known to comment that living with a spouse who was on the apartheid assassination hit list had gifts to offer. My late husband (activist Joe Slovo) took a philosophical approach: “You must put in place guidelines for yourself (don’t take the same route home each day. Vary your schedule), and then you must […]
We lose loved ones. We suffer. It is the profound privilege of our humanity to care deeply, to love another, and to know that we are all mortal. The loving gives joy; the losing hurts. We have many occasions spread over the entire year, depending on our geography and faith orientation. Last week was Diwali. […]
This week, Mapi and I started teaching our last LoveLegacyDignity (LLD) programme of the year, Live By Design – Finish Strong. Our emphasis is to encourage people to review their life as they live it now and consider how they might want to reshape it going forward. We ask people to write down what they […]
Living with and caring for family members who have Alzheimer’s is hard. It is as though the person you know is disappearing in front of you. They are there in body but no longer mentally and emotionally engaged. It is tantalising. Some days there’s a glimpse of the person who loved you, many other days, […]