Imagine this scenario: An elderly wife has received a terminal diagnosis. She now knows how she will die. She is afraid. She does not want to suffer, nor gradually (or quickly) lose her faculties. It feels undignified. Who wants to suffer in front of their loved ones? She lives in the state of Washington, so instead, she elects to take her own life, supported by the state.
Her husband is in shock, he grieves before she is even dead. He is overwhelmed. He looks into his wife’s eyes and cannot imagine a home, or a life, without her in it. They have an adult daughter together—a human embodiment of the love that he and his wife have shared. He confides in his daughter about his grief, and further, about his fear of living alone after his wife’s passing.
This is a true story. The daughter does not shine.
