Life is a gift. I think in ways having Wegs is a gift, it forces us to consider our own mortality, we know that our lives may be shorter so we have the opportunity to cherish and find closure and meaning in things that we often take for granted. If I never got Wegs but died on the way home from work in a car accident, there are so many opportunties to reconnect and reprioritize that I would have missed.

I consider myself spiritual but not neccessarily religious. I am not afraid of death, although I love life. I think the energy we create (positive or negative) is what we take with us and perhaps bring back. As an ICU nurse I have seen many deaths and I have never had one person wish for time at the office (lesson to self) they all wish for more time with loved ones. I don't know if any of the other nurses on this forum have noticed but I have frequently experienced the dying person talking to someone by name, smiling, without exception family has always said that the person or people they were talking to were dead loved ones (never live missing ones)......interesting.

The families with the least trauma are those who have a clear understanding of what the dying persons wishes were. It is such a tragedy when death has never been talked about and 1/2 the family says that keeping Grandma on a vent is torture and she would never want to die that way, while the other 1/2 calls the ones who are in favor of allowing a natural death murderers. (Yes those words have actually been used) and it creates such strife and hurt within families. I have completed something called Five Wishes Aging With Dignity Five Wishes It goes into great detail about end of life issues in a loving way.

I hope to have leave the world a bit better place for my having been here. I do worry about my children and grandchildren financially because I am sole support of my grandchildren, but I have to leave things as legally locked up as possible and then let go and understand that I raised smart children who even though they don't have my income capacity they will figure it out, even now they are trying to figure out alternatives if I lost my job, my insurance my benefits and it is allowing them to grow in ways I didn't anticipate. I might feel, I'm sure I would feel differently if they were all small. Okay, there I go with my totally innacuarte percption that I can control things.

Ultimately life and death are all part of this amazing circle and each season has its strengths and lessons. I hope to live and die each one well.