An end of life discussion...
So this was how it was supposed to happen - my father would not feel pain; he would not feel agony; the end would come swiftly and relatively easily, probably around Thanksgiving. That's what we were told by the doctors the summer after I graduated from college. My father had kidney cancer - and had been born with just one kidney, which had complicated the treatment. When remission ended and the cancer returned, my father made the decision not to pursue aggressive treatment to prolong his life. He'd watched his beloved wife die of cancer ten years earlier and saw no point in extending the agony that comes with dying of such a disease. I was the oldest of three girls. My father was a widower. My two younger sisters went off to college a week after that initial "end of life discussion" and my father and I were left alone to contemplate the end of his life. For some months, it was as the doctors had told us. Not too much pain or discomfort. A growing wea...