This made me ugly cry! I remember sitting in the hospital room in SC with my mother, my siblings and som ofher siblings, laughing, joking and talking about good ole times when I noticed my mother take her last breath 28 years ago after colorectal cancer, because the doctors said the cancer had metastasized to her pancreas and there was nothing they could do.. As I watched her, I told everyone, "She's gone, y'all"

I remember going to upstate NY because my sister-in-law had decided she wanted no more treatment for her bladder cancer in MN at the Mayo Clinic, where her big sister lived and had taken her for better treatment than she could've gotten in NY. She wanted to die at home, in NY -- and that's what she did. I remember massaging her calves and stroking her brow as she writhed in pain, waiting for her next pain pill from the beautifully compassionate hospice care workers who came every day. I watched her too, take her last breath, the day after my husband's (her baby brother) birthday.

I wish they'd both had a kind, caring doctor like you. Hell, I'd be willing to go wherever you are when my time inevitably comes!! I've never heard a doctor speak and feel the way you have in this piece. Thanks for letting me know you exist!!